Song of the Day: Sharp Dressed Man (by ZZ Top)

Posted on by Arleigh

When I first heard Sharp Dressed Man and saw the video, I knew there was real wisdom in not looking like a slob. ZZ Top basically lays it out in the coolest way possible: looking sharp isn’t about vanity, it’s about presence. That opening riff alone feels like a wake-up call—like, hey, maybe ditch the wrinkled shirt and step into something that actually fits. It’s not preachy, it’s just smooth persuasion backed by undeniable groove.

The whole track just struts with confidence. Billy Gibbons’ guitar tone is razor-clean, every note hitting like it’s been polished before being sent out into the world. Then the solo kicks in around 1:30, and that’s where everything locks into place. Instead of going for the harder, heavier rock sound that dominated the ’70s and ’80s, Gibbons leans into the song’s bluesy DNA, keeping it tight, expressive, and full of swagger. It’s not some over-the-top shred fest—it’s controlled, stylish, and full of attitude, exactly like the kind of guy the song is talking about.

What makes the song stick is how simple the message is. You don’t need a complete lifestyle overhaul—you just need to care a little. Clean shoes, a pressed shirt, maybe a jacket that actually fits. ZZ Top turns basic effort into a full-on identity upgrade. Suddenly, getting dressed isn’t a chore, it’s a move. And once you feel that shift, it’s hard to go back.

That’s why Sharp Dressed Man feels timeless. It’s more than just a blues-rock hit—it’s like a three-minute style intervention for guys who didn’t know they needed one. It may have helped men of all ages figure out how to dress well, but don’t go calling it “becoming metrosexual”—this is ZZ Top, not a spa day. And sure, being sharp dressed gets you most of the way there, but rolling up in a customized candy-apple red ’33 Ford three-window coupe doesn’t exactly hurt the overall look either. Style matters, but style with attitude—and maybe a little horsepower—is what really seals it.

And if you’re gonna get pulled over because Deep Purple’s Highway Star made you push the speedometer a little too far, you might as well be sharp dressed when you get your speeding ticket—I say that from experience, having been pulled over not in a ’33 Ford coupe but in a maroon 1991 Mitsubishi Galant while sporting a rented long-tail tuxedo… but hey, close enough.

Sharp Dressed Man

Ah
Yeah
Ow

Clean shirt, new shoes
And I don’t know where I am goin’ to
Silk suit, black tie (black tie)
I don’t need a reason why

They come runnin’ just as fast as they can
‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man

Gold watch, diamond ring
I ain’t missin’ not a single thing
Cufflinks, stick pin
When I step out, I’m gonna do you in
They come runnin’ just as fast as they can
‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man (uh huh)

Uh huh

(guitar solo @1:30)

Top coat, top hat
But I don’t worry ’cause my wallet’s fat
Black shades, white gloves
Lookin’ sharp, lookin’ for love

They come runnin’ just as fast as they can
‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man
(Oh-huh, you can’t lose with the dress I use)
(That’s right, real fine)

Great Guitar Solos Series

Join #MondayMania For Wrong Swipe!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Hi, everyone!  Tonight, on twitter, I will be hosting one of my favorite films for #MondayMania!  Join us for 2016’s Wrong Swipe!

You can find the movie on Prime and Tubi and then you can join us on twitter at 9 pm central time!  (That’s 10 pm for you folks on the East Coast.)  See you then!

Scenes that I Love: Edie Sedgwick In Vinyl

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s scene that I love comes to use from Andy Warhol’s 1965 film, Vinyl!

In this scene below, Gerard Malanga and Edie Sedgwick dance to Nowhere to Run by Martha and The Vandellas.  Malanga is playing an out-of-control juvenile delinquent.  Edie is playing …. well, Edie is basically playing herself.  No one smoked a cigarette with as much style as Edie Sedgwick.

 

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Edie Sedgwick Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots from 4 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!

83 years ago today, Edie Sedgwick was born in Santa Barbara, California.

While at a party in 1970, Edie ran into a palm reader who grabbed her hand and then stepped away, shocked at just how short her lifeline was.  “It’s okay,” Edie sweetly told him, “I know.”  One year later Edie Sedgwick would pass away, with the cause of death officially being an overdose of barbiturates.  She only lived 27 years but, for a brief few years, she was one of the most famous women in America.  She was a model and an actress and, in her way, a revolutionary.  She died before she had a chance to play the roles that she truly deserved.  Instead, we have only a few films that she made with Andy Warhol and a lot of speculation about what could have been.

This post is dedicated to Edie on her birthday.

These are…

4 Shots From 4 Edie Sedgwick Films

Beauty #2 (1965, dir by Andy Warhol)

Poor Little Rich Girl (1965, dir by Andy Warhol)

Outer and Inner Space (1966, dir by Andy Warhol)

Lupe (1966, dir by Andy Warhol)

Monday Live Tweet Alert: Join Us for Kid Cannabis!

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As some of our regular readers undoubtedly know, I am involved in hosting a few weekly live tweets on twitter and occasionally Mastodon.  I host #FridayNightFlix every Friday, I co-host #ScarySocial on Saturday, and I am one of the five hosts of Mastodon’s #MondayActionMovie!  Every week, we get together.  We watch a movie.  We snark our way through it.

Tonight, for #MondayActionMovie, the film will be Kid Cannabis!

If you want to join this watch party, just hop onto Mastodon, pull up Kid Cannabis on YouTube, start the movie at 8 pm et, and use the #MondayActionMovie hashtag!

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Insane In The Brain by Cypress Hill (1993, directed by Josh Taft)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

It’s the 20th day of the 4th month of the year so the music video of the day could only come from Cypress Hill.

This was directed by Josh Taft, who has also done several award-winning commercials and directed music videos for Pearl Jam, Tribe Called Quest, and Stone Temple Pilots, amongst others.

Enjoy!

Late Night Retro Television Review: Degrassi: The Next Generation 2.12 and 2.13 “White Wedding”

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 Sunday, I will be reviewing the Canadian series, Degrassi: The Next Generation, which aired from 2001 to 2015!  The series can be streamed on YouTube and Tubi.

It’s a nice day for a white wedding!

Episodes 2.12 and 2.13 “White Wedding”

(Dir by Bruce McDonald, originally aired on January 6th, 2003)

Snake and Spike get married!

Of course, there’s some drama on the way.  How much drama?  Let’s count.

  1. Spike discovers that she’s pregnant and doesn’t tell Snake because she’s not sure if she wants to keep the baby.
  2. Emma is upset when she finds out that Spike is thinking about getting an abortion.  She’s even more upset when her perm goes terrible wrong and she ends up looking like Harpo Marx.
  3. Lucy and Caitlin show up to help Spike get ready for the wedding.
  4. Joey throws a bachelor party for Snake.  Craig suggests that Joey should hire a stripper, despite Snake not wanting a stripper.  Joey agrees because he thinks it will be funny.
  5. Why did Craig suggest that Joey hire a stripper?  Because JT and Toby begged him to.  However, when JT and Toby dress up like they’re on Miami Vice and show up for the bachelor party, Joey tells them to go home.
  6. Mr. Raditch shows up for the bachelor party.  “Oh, cheese balls!” he says when he looks at the food that’s been laid out.
  7. Emma tells Snake that Spike is pregnant.  Snake gets mad that Spike didn’t tell him.
  8. Spike tells Emma that it’s her right to get an abortion if she chooses and then says that she’s not going to make the same mistake twice.  Uhmmm …. wow, Spike.  That’s a really stupid thing to say to your daughter.
  9. Emma eventually forgives Spike.  I would not.
  10. Eventually, with everyone at the church waiting, Spike and Snake talk and decide to keep the baby.  Then, they get married!
  11. Manny invites Sean to the wedding.  Emma freaks out and Manny has to retract the invitation.  But then Emma eventually invites Sean herself.  At the end of the episode, at the reception, Emma and Sean have their first kiss.  Apparently, it was Miriam McDonald’s first kiss as well.  Awwww!

This episode is classic Degrassi.  It’s also one of the best-known episodes because Nickelodeon used to repeat it constantly.  Yay for Snake and Spike!  And yay for Emma!  Who wouldn’t want their single mother to marry one of their teachers?

Okay, I don’t think anyone would want that.  Still, it worked out well for the show.

Lisa Marie’s Week In Review: 4/13/26 — 4/19/26

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

 

‘Here’s what I watched this week!

Films I Watched:

  1. Cutting Class (1989)
  2. Do or Die (1991)
  3. Fit To Kill (1993)
  4. Freefall (1994)
  5. Guns (1990)
  6. Hansel & Gretel: Warriors of Warcraft (2013)
  7. Hard Hunted (1992)
  8. Killer Body (2018)
  9. Logan’s Run (1976)
  10. The Octagon (1980)
  11. Snow White: A Deadly Summer (2012)
  12. Target Earth (1954)
  13. The Trip (1967)
  14. Unchained (2021)

Television Shows I Watched:

  1. 1st & Ten
  2. Baywatch
  3. CHiPs
  4. Decoy
  5. Degrassi: The Next Generation
  6. Freddy’s Nightmares
  7. Homicide: Life On The Street
  8. Hunter
  9. Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger
  10. The Love Boat
  11. Miami Vice
  12. Pacific Blue
  13. Prime Suspect
  14. The Right Time
  15. Saved By The Bell
  16. Saved By The Bell: The New Class
  17. St. Elsewhere
  18. Who’s The Boss?
  19. WKRP In Cincinnati

Live Tweets:

  1. The Octagon
  2. Killer Body
  3. Logan’s Run
  4. The Trip
  5. Cutting Class

4 Shots From 4 Films:

  1. James Franco
  2. Eric Roberts
  3. 1982
  4. Charlie Chaplin
  5. 1964
  6. Rod Steiger
  7. Stanley Donen

Scenes That I Love:

  1. Shattered Glass
  2. Star 80
  3. Red Dawn
  4. Roman Holiday
  5. Casino
  6. The Shining
  7. Funny Face

Songs of the Day:

  1. Deep Purple
  2. James Brown
  3. Rage Against The Machine
  4. Southern Man
  5. Pantera
  6. Dynatron
  7. Bob Dylan

Music Videos of the Day:

  1. INXS
  2. Sammy Hagar
  3. David Lee Roth
  4. Frank Black
  5. George Harrison
  6. They Might Be Giants
  7. Whitesnake

Artworks of the Day:

  1. Movie Merry-Go-Round
  2. About The Murder Of The Circus Queen
  3. Star Western
  4. Detective Fiction Weekly
  5. Death and Taxes
  6. One Spring
  7. Thomas Jefferson At Age 78

Links From Last Week:

  1. All Hail “Tropic Thunder!” 3 Reasons To Love This Hilariously Inappropriate Comedy With Tom Cruise’s Wildest Role!
  2. Happy Caturday! (4.18.2026)

News From Last Week:

  1. Actress Nathalie Baye Dies At 77
  2. Actress Joy Harmon Dies At 85
  3. Songwriter Don Schlitz Dies At 73
  4. L.A. Production Crisis Now A Political Flashpoint
  5. D4vd brings in powerhouse team who fought Hollywood’s most notorious cases after murder arrest

Links From The Site:

  1. Arleigh reviewed Apostle, Out For Justice, and Cold In July!
  2. Jeff reviewed Target, Alone In The Neon Jungle, King of the Bullwhip, El Paso Stampede, Crossing the Line, Firefighter, and Rated X!
  3. Brad reviewed Risen, wished James Woods a happy birthday, and said goodbye to tax season!
  4. I reviewed Degrassi and Law of Attraction!

Click here for last week!

 

Target (1952, directed by Stuart Gilmore)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The frontier town of Pecos, Texas is without a marshal and Martin Conroy (Walter Reed) and his men are taking advantage of the situation by forcing people to sell their land for next to nothing.  A railroad’s coming and Conroy is looking to make a killing.  When landowner Bailey (John Hamilton) is targeted by Conroy, ranch hands Tim Holt (played by Tim Holt) and Rafferty (Richard Martin) are determined to stop him.  Federal marshal Terry Moran is summoned to the town to enforce the law.  Everyone is shocked when Moran’s daughter — also named Terry (Linda Douglas) — shows up and declares herself the new marshal.  “We don’t need no petticoat marshal!” the townspeople cry.

This is a by-the-book B-western, one of many that Tim Holt and Richard Martin made over the years.  In this one, neither Holt not Martin seems to be too invested in the familiar story.  (Holt was maybe wondering how he went from The Magnificent Ambersons and Treasure of the Sierra Madre to this.)  The only really interesting thing about this one is that the marshal is a woman but the movie doesn’t really do anything with the idea.  Tim Holt was the star here and no petticoat marshal was going to upstage him.

The thing that I find interesting about these B-westerns is how often the villain was someone looking to get rich by selling ill-gotten land to the railroad companies.  B-westerns always presented the railroads as being both the best and the worst thing about the west.  The railroads bring and connect civilization but they also attract villains like Martin Conroy.  In the American westerns, it was always made clear that the railroad company was as disgusted by men like Conroy as the townspeople.  However, in the spaghetti westerns that would come out in the 60s, it was always clear that the railroad didn’t care how they got their land as long as they got it.

This was Tim Holt’s second-to-last movie as a B-western star.  After his career ended in Hollywood, Holt relocated to Oklahoma and eventually became the manager of radio station.  He died in 1973.