Things from this week

I'm so happy to see that Final Girl is blogging again. For a while it was out of service- no new posts and, even worse, there was some cheap ad banner under the header. I was bored last week and when I feel that way I like to go to the review archives and read or re-read old posts. It always makes me wanna watch movies I haven't seen yet, like Alice Sweet Alice and The Town That Dreaded Sundown. Last night I watched this week's episode of The Newsroom. There are only 2 more episodes coming. If there's one thing I don't like about series on cable it's that their seasons are so short. It feels like The Newsroom just started. And it seems like Nurse Jackie does one month of new episodes and then ends for the year. I understand: they're well-made, well-written, expensive shows. I don't care. I think the seasons should be at least twice as long. This afternoon my friend took me to Burger King and I got a Coke and a Rodeo Burger w/out cheese. This is the first time I've asked them to leave the cheese off and it was so good- just BBQ sauce and onion rings. It was the perfect lunch and because it was so hot out the Coke was soooo good. Sometimes when I'm feeling depressed (and I have been) I like to watch something scary to take my mind off things. I went to the FearNet On Demand station and nothing looked good. My only choices were Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer- it's supposed to be good and I heard a lot about it when it came out, but it came out in the late 80s; I figured it was gonna be too dated- or Midnight Meat Train. Just the title alone is pretty upsetting. It was 2am and I figured I'd watch it, go to bed, and then sleep late because I'm off today. I started watching the movie and at first I was worried that it was gonna be too scary and upsetting but then I saw all the CGI special effects and that's what saved me. CGI doesn't scare me at all. It looks so fake that it has no effect on me. So instead of being disturbed by the murder scenes I could just watch and follow the story. I didn't realize that Bradley Cooper was in this movie. I was also surprised to see Brooke Shields. I'm not sure what to say about this movie. Did I like it? I don't know, it was OK. Would I recomend it? I guess- or at least I wouldn't tell someone not to watch it. Was it scary? Yes, it had it's moments. I realized last night that there's probably nothing scarier than having the good guys sneak into the home of the bad guy when he's not there. So it's 5:30pm. I've still got laundry to do and some cleaning so I'm gonna get back to that. Good night.

"The Newsroom"

I've seen every episode of The Newsroom and I like it. It has all the things I like and dislike about Aaron Sorkin projects. I have something to say about this week's episode, "Bullies", and I'm not sure if it's a complaint or just something I noticed... Now, if Sorkin had some ideas that he used on Studio 60, his behind-the-scenes-at-a-late-night-comedy-show that lasted one season on NBC a couple years ago and he wanted to re-visit them on The Newsroom then that would make sense. Not many people saw that show. But Sorkin is copying who episodes of The West Wing and a lot of people are familiar with that show. In the second season of The West Wing, Josh needed to see a psychiatrist. He was very reluctant to tell the guy anything and initially Josh lied to the guy and the guy caught it got pissed. It was revealed that Josh flipped out in the Oval Office and was suffering from PTSD after being shot. The psychiatrist figured out Josh's problem at the very beginning of their conversation and revealed his diognosis at the close of the show. The psychiatrist was no-nonsense and Jewish (Adam Arkin, he's great- I felt so bad when he got killed in Halloween H20). In this week's episode of The Newsroom, Will goes to see his psychiatrist because he's having trouble sleeping (a lot like the West Wing episode "Five Nights"). Here it's revealed that Will's had an angry outburst on the air when he went after a gay Rick Santorum supporter. Will is very reluctant to talk but his no-nonsense Jewish psychiatrist figures out Will's problem at the beginning of their conversation. Like I said, I'm not complaining; it's just something I noticed. This isn't unusual for Sorkin. Before The West Wing he wrote a Michael Douglas movie called The American President. At one point in the movie the US is attacked and Douglas is in the Situation Room with his military team. He doesn't like their plan: a proportional response. In the first season of The West Wing there was a similar scenes- but more fleshed out- in an episode called "A Proportional Response". I read somewhere that a lot of left over storylines from the movie were used for the show.

Ken Levine's blog

One day I was on Wiki reading about Cheers episodes and they mentioned Carla's husband Eddie and the way that he left the show. On Cheers, Eddie was done with hockey and ended up in an ice show. Then he was run over and killed by a Zamboni machine. Wiki had a link to the blog By Ken Levine and on his blog he told the story about how the actor who played Eddie, Jay Thomas, had a radio show at the time and one day a caller asked what was the worst thing about working on Cheers and he answered, "Having to kiss Rhea Perlman". She was listening that day. I liked Levine's blog and I went back and read his older posts from the archive. There are some great tips for TV writers and lots of behind-the-scenes stories about Cheers, MASH, Frasier, and other shows he's worked on. Anyway, on Fridays he answers questions from readers and one guy, ScottyB, mentioned how unfunny and typical childbirth scenes are on TV and in movies. The pregnant woman freaks out and yells at the father and demands drugs. That's so true. Just last month I saw the trailer for some dumb movie called What To Expect When You're Expecting and it had a clip of a woman in labor. MAN: Remember, honey, you said you wanted a natural childbirth? WOMAN: Give me the juice. GIVE ME THE JUICE!!! We've all seen that scene a billion times and it's never funny. Then at the end the father will act all tough and tell the woman that he's going to stay by her side for the whole delivery. A doctor will step up with some scary medical equipment or a huge needle, or the baby starts coming and the man looks under the sheet and he faints. Someone should put together a collection of clips from sitcoms and movies and show all the hysterical women and fainting fathers. That would make a good Youtube video.

"The Newsroom" and "Prometheus"

My friend loves the Alien movies and I love going to the movies, so tonight we went to see Prometheus. I've got a lot of problems with this movie. The main thing is- it doesn't make a lot of sense. No, it's main problem is that it's slow and almost unwatchable. Halfway through, and then especially towards the end, I just wanted it to be over so I could go out and have a cigarette. Prometheus is really two movies: it's a movie that asks questions about where humans came from, and it's also a horror movie about Alien-type creatures attacking people. Here's something that bothered me: during the opening credits I saw "Guy Pearce". I was pretty excited; I like him and haven't seen him since The Rules of Engagement in 2000. He was so good in that. So I watched the movie and forgot all about him. Then during the closing credits I saw his name again. Oh, right- I forgot about Guy. So, who did he play? Then I realized that he was the actor under all the old person make-up. The movies are not good at aging people. I'm thinking about The Godfather Part III and A League of Their Own. The only example of good old-person make-up is Father Merrin in The Exorcist. The funny thing is, now that he really is old, he looks just like Dick Smith made him look in that movie. By the way, this past weekend I saw both the first episode of The Newsroom and Aaron Sorkin on Piers Morgan talking about The Newsroom. The show was exactly the way I expected it to be but I'm not complaining. I don't know if I'm gonna like it as much as The West Wing but I think it will be good. Anyway, Morgan asked Sorkin about acting and good actors and Sorkin said that one thing that actors can't fake is being smart. I agree and there's a good example in Prometheus. I'm not saying that Logan Marshall-Green, the guy who plays Charlie Holloway, is dumb or stupid. He's probably pretty bright. But in this movie he was playing an archaeologist and I didn't believe it for a second. You watch him and you know that he hasn't read a book since he was a senior in high school. It isn't Green's fault; he's just mis-cast. By the way, through the whole movie I was trying to remember where I'd seen Green before. It wouldn't come to me so I looked him up when I got home and then I found it: he played the guy who made it to the end in Devil. Before i started writing this I looked up Prometheus on Wiki cause I was confused about the story. I still don't understand why people (and robots) did the things they did, and I'd like to find out, but I'd like to find out in any way that doesn't involve watching the movie ever again.

Booker T and the MGs

A few weeks ago I bought Elvis Costello's Get Happy again, this time the 2 CD set from Rhino. 50 songs. In the liner notes he mentions that when they were making this record he picked up a bunch of Stax singles and that the bassline for "Temptation" was taken from the Booker T and the MGs song "Time Is Tight", so I really wanted to hear that song. Booker T and the MGs are best known for their instrumental song "Green Onions". You know it. If you've ever gone to the movies and sat through trailers then you've heard it. They always play it to show that a character is cool. Anyway, I've also been obsessed with the movie The Blues Brothers (and 1998's Blues Brothers 2000) and the Blues Brothers Band feaures two MGs: Steve Cropper (who I first heard of when he played on Frank Black's Honeycomb LP) and Donald "Duck" Dunn (Dunn recently died). The Blues Brothers was on last night so I watched it again. The songs are so good, especially Ray Charles doing "Shake A Tail Feather" and Aretha doing "Think". Aretha also has some great lines in the movie and she nails them- "Don't you blaspheme in here! Don't you blaspheme in here!" and "So you can leave without your dry white toast, and without your four fried chickens, and you can leave without Matt "Guitar" Murphey!" The best thing that happened last week is that I was flipping around and one of my movie stations was playing a documentary called Respect Yourself- The Story of Stax. It told the whole story of Stax Records and was narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.

If I could interview Prince

I was just watching Prince being interviewed on The Today Show. It was an old interview. He seemed normal- totally fine- and maybe he is, but I've gotten the idea that he's gotten a little crazy over the past few years. I don't know. Maybe he's always been a little strange. Anyway, I like him, even though I haven't really been into any of his music since around the time of The Hits/ The B-sides. I was thinking about what it would be like if I could interview him and what I would ask. Here's what I have: What do U think of Cyndi Lauper's version of "When U Were Mine"? What was it like when U wrote and recorded "Love Song" with Madonna? What do U think of Kevin Smith? Regarding the liner notes 2 The Hits/ The B-sides- how involved were U in the writing? Also, the guy wrote about the Purple Rain-era B-sides and when he came 2 "Another Lonely Christmas", "Last, and probably least...". Do U agree? (Note: I live in western MA.) In 1979 U went on tour opening for Rick James and U played in Springfield, MA? Do U remember anything about that night? The Outkast song "Hey Ya" reminds me of U. What do U think of that song?

New obsession

Ever since I first saw a picture of him, I've been interested in the new guitarist for The Red Hot Chili Peppers- Josh Klinghoffer. He's 32 and has a certain look that I like. The other night I watched the induction ceremony for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (JK is the youngest member, beating out Stevie Wonder) and my interest in the band grew. Even though it isn't really my type of music, they've got some great songs and I've always liked them, especially Flea, doing those Gus Van Sant movies and everything. Anyway, I just really like this JK guy and the way that he's so into music. I wish I was into that. From what I've read he was very close to John Frusciante, someone else who's life revolves around music. I'm always interested in people who have a one-track-mind like that. I think it's cool.

Some "Trompe Le Monde" Stuff

I don't have Trompe Le Monde on vinyl (I don't even have it on CD- just cassette) so I've never seen the labels they used. I saw this the other night and I really like it; not only is it striking, it's kind of funny-looking. Just like the Red Heaven poster below, I don't know if these two posters are black and white or if these are just black and white reproductions.

Some Kristin Hersh Posters

One for Strange Angels and two for Hips and Makers.

Another "Red Heaven" Poster

I don't know if this poster is black and white or just this image is. Either way, it's pretty nice, but not as good as the other Red Heaven poster that I've posted here a hundred times.

3D!!!!!!!!!!!

If you have 3D glasses (I have a pair. I don't know where I got them- they say "Sharkboy and Lavagirl". I never saw that movie) go grab them. Here are some 3D photos I found on the internet.

"Echo"

"Echo" (1999) Kristin Hersh Design: v23 Portrait Photography: Andrew Catlin Photography: Jim Friedman

"Echo" Krsitin Hersh

Echo EP (1999) Kristin Hersh I love the song "Echo" and I love these B-sides. One thing I really like about them is that they're really TM songs- look at the credits. Like I've said in the past, I think that the two EPs from the Sky Motel LP were done based on themes: A Cleaner Light's B-sides are basic accoustic versions of intense TM songs- a cleaner light. And the B-sides for Echo are both covers- echos. Design: v23 Photgraphy: Jim Friedman

"We're Gonna Rise" The Breeders

"We're Gonna Rise" (2008) The Breeders I think "We're Gonna Rise" was the second single off Mountain Battles. If I remember right, "Bang On" was the first and "Walk It Off" was the third. I love "Walk It Off". Now that I think of it, I don't know if a single actually came out but I know they made a video for it. Anyway, I really like the sleeve for this one. The photos are amazing; great colors. Art direction and design: Vaughn Oliver/ v23 Photography: Marc Atkins

"Mountain Battles" The Breeders

Mountain Battles (2008) The Breeders I like this record, but not as much as the one before, Title TK. That one is amazing and probably their most consistent record ever. Art direction and desing: Vaughn Oliver/ v23 Photography: Marc Atkins

"A Cleaner Light" Kristin Hersh

New Kristin Hersh show dates are up at KristinHersh.com.

"A Cleaner Light" EP (1999) Kristin Hersh I love this EP. I picked it up at Newbury Comics in Amherst, MA before they moved to Northampton, MA. It was new accoustic versions of old TM songs "Garoux des Larmes", "Hate My Way", and "Cry Baby Cry".

Holy shit

I was just looking at my "Edit" page. It last all my posts and shows how many times each one has been viewed. Some of my newer ones have 4 or 5 views which is new and exciting enough, but then I saw that my post "New "Real Ramona' poster" got 89 views. Sadly, none of the posts had comments. I wish people would comment. It doesn't have to be positive, I don't care. I just want this to be more than jus me writing and posting pictures. I'd like other peoples' views and ideas and opinions. Please don't be shy. I'd love to hear from you.

"Ed Wood"

Ed Wood (1994) One of my movie stations has been playing Ed Wood lately. I watched it the other day and I'm watching it now, but I've still never seen the beginning. I really like it. The black and white looks great- it's a really attractive movie. Good acting all around and it's always good to see Bill Murray. I'd like to read the book that the movie was based upon- there are a lot of interesting stories behind all the characters. Also I love the movie, especially the theme that's played at the closing credits (I think it's by Howard Shore- if I'm right, this is one of the few Tinm Burton movies that danny Elfman didn't score). I mostly like Tim Burton movies- Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Batman & Batman Returns, evne Sleepy Hollow had some good moments, but I really dislike Mars Attacks. I've only seen 1/2 an hour of it but I hate it. By the waywas on last night. I've got a lot of problems with all the Scream sequels. 2 and 3 have some good parts (Laurie Metcalf and Carrie Fisher) but the endings are so preachy and lame and 4 ands the same way. Still,I have to say, 4 was a step in the right direction. It wasn't as jokey as the last two and it was a little darker. And even the lighting was scarier. I have one big complaint about 4 though: I hate Trevor's last scene- I think it's terrible what happens and it 's very upsetting. Almost ruins the whole movie, seriously.

Guess what I got for $1

So it's payday and when I got out of work I picked up a slice of pizza and headed to the two records storesd in town, first Newbury Comics, then Turn It Up Records. There wasn';t anything at the first place, but the second place had a lot of good stuff. I got three things. First I saw a live Frank Black CD- the one with the cover picture that's the same as the one above. It's called Thursday June 24 1993 10pm EST. It was only $1. I'm listening to it now. It's got a great version of "I Heard Ramona Sing". This CD is a very clear recording. It sounds perfect. I can't wait to hear "This Is Where I Belong". I bought a cassingle too, also $1. It's The Sugarcubes's "Hit". It has a B-side I've never heard before: "Theft". The final thing I bought was kinda pricey- $10- but i think it's worth it. 2 CDs, 50 songs, Get Happy from Elvis Costello. This is the Rhino version. I had the Ryko version and I've wanted this newer one forever. This has a lot of demos and alternate versions of Get Happy songs plus songs Trust songs.

Belly question

I was just thinking. You know those postcards that came with the 7" singles for "Feed The Tree" and "Gepetto"? On the back they say "1 in a series of 6" or something like that, and I've only ever seen four. I have the "Gepetto" 7" and it came with the chair and the giant with black hair. I wonder if 4Ad was originally gonna put out another single of Star and it just never happened. So now I'm dying to know: Was there gonna be another single? What was it gonna be? Did they have the artwork all set up? Did they have 2 more postcards prepared? If anyone has any information, please let me know. Thanks, RJ

Belly "Star" back cover

After doing this for almost four years I was starting to think that I'd seen all the 4AD images from the 90s. Then, tonight, I saw this image- the back cover of Belly's Star on LP. This picture might be the very best image that was created for Belly. I can't get over how good it looks. It's perfect. The colors, the design, the way it all comes together. I'm trying to imagine what it must've felt like to have taken the photo of those flowers and then developed the picture and seen how beautiful it is. And even at 4AD and v23 where they're used to amazing, beautiful images it must've surprised everyone. Like TOTY, I only owned Star on tape, never CD. The back cover of the CD is the same photo, but the text is printed on top of the photo, to great effect. I love that image. It was already my favorite Belly image. But now there's this- the photo, so crisp and clear, above the text with it's bright red background. I was just thinking: the back cover image is so good- I wonder why they didn't include it in the cassette sleeve. I bet it would've looked awesome shrunk down to tape-size. Now I'm wondering if there are versions of the Star cassette that use the back cover image. Maybe I've got something else to look for.

Blogger changes

Blogger is making some changes in the way that posts are composed- the page is different and I've heard other bloggers complain that they're having trouble transfering their writing from Microsoft Word to Blogger, but I've only had one problem: in the past, I never knew how to insert photos inside the text. If you've been here before you might've noticed that the pictures always show up above the text. It's all I know how to do. But now I keep on getting the pitures stuck in after the first line or two. I'm not sure what to do, maybe I'll edit this shit later. Anyway...

"Teenager Of The Year" LP

I've got Frank Black's Teenager Of The Year

on tape and I never owned it on CD. I know it's long but I always forget that it's a double album, like 1999. Tonight I saw these images of the record labels and record sleeves. I might've liked something different- maybe playing around with the original album cover text and colors- but I like what they did here.

I just don't know what to do with myself

My favorite blog, Final Girl, is on hiatis, and it makes me wonder if I should continue on with RJ Battles. One of the things that bothers me is that I have no readers. That bother's me a little. It's been almost four years. But then, like I've said before- if someone stumbles across this blog and they like it then there's almost four years worth of posts that they can go back and read and enjoy. I wish that writing this blog had made me a better writer. I don't know, maybe it did. But I'm not as good as Final Girl and that's what I wanted. I love going back through her Reviews Archive and reading her reviews of certain movies, especially when she did her two movie marathons: The Halloween movies and the Friday the 13th movies. It was the perfect idea and she did it so well. I don't think I've written any posts that people would go back and read over and over. The one good thing about this blog is all the good record sleeve images I've come across and posted here. I've found some excellent pictures. And as I've said before- a lot of them I didn't even know existed. In a lot of cases I was looking for something else and just stumbled across them. But the thing is, eventually I'll run out of favorite record sleeves to post. Belly only made so many records. So anyway, just writing this has made me realize that I have to keep going. If I continue on with RJ Battles I know I'll find a new purpose. I have an idea in my head of what I want this blog to be and sometime soon I'm going to get there.

The Breeders

I love the Breeders. I have almost every song they've ever done- easy, because they haven't put out that much over the past 22 years. It feels weird to say it like that. As I've probably said here before. I first came to The Breeders after hearing "Cannonball" and falling in love with it. I still think it's a cool, catchy song, and I'm still impressed with the video. Watching it you can see why Kim Deal had such a reputation for being "cool" back then. So I loved "Cannonball", and, at the same time, I loved the song "Feed The Tree" from Belly. I bought Belly's Star and The Breeders's Last Splash and played them both over and over. At the time I still didn't know anything about the Pixies or Throwing Muses, though soon I'd buy a couple of each of their albums. Then one day I was at a record store and it happened to have another Breeders album that I'd never heard of: Pod. 'Cool',I thought, and then I looked at the front and the sticker on it saying The debut album from The Breeders featuring Kim Deal and Tanya Donelly. That was an exciting discovery. I really liked it but I was disappointed that Donelly wasn't featured more; she didn't even do much writing on the record (it wasn't til a few years ago that I read that Deal and Donelly had an agreement: Deal would write the first Breeders album and Donelly would write the second; Donelly left to form Belly and the songs that became Star

were originally meant to be the second Breeders record).

"Dig For Fire" Pixies

Dig For Fire EP (1990) Pixies

This has always been one of my favorite Pixies EPs. Cool B-sides. "Velvety" is alright, but I really like "Winterlong" and "Santo" (I read somewhere that "Dig For Fire" was meant to be like a Talking Heads impression, but I think "Santo" sounds more like TH).

FLYBOYS (2006)

FLYBOYS (2006)

Sometime soon I hope to write about FLYBOYS, a 2006 James Franco movie about WWI pilots. Franco's character is based on Frank Luke, who I've been obsessed with since 1999.

I was looking up FLYBOYS on Wiki and looking at the guy who directed it. His name is Tony Brill. Looking back over the movies he's made, I didn't recognize any till I got to the 1980s and 90s. He directed MY BODYGUARD (1980). That was a strange movie- it just had a lot of odd touches, I thought. His next movie was one that I remembered seeing a lot on HBO when I was a kid. It was a sad, sappy "dying kid" movie starring Mary Tyler Moore and Dudley Moore. The kid as six weeks to live and I clearly remember her dying on a subway, right after going to see a Broadway play or something. The other movie I recognized was 1990's CRAZY PEOPLE, also starring Dudley Moore- it was a comedy that I saw at the movies with my brother and I thought it was kind of funny at the time but I've seen it since and could only take about 15 minutes of it.

Anyway, I'm not expecting much from FLYBOYS, and I don't really like James Franco, but I really do wanna see it. Maybe it'll be a good story but either way, I've gotta see it because it's Luke-related.

Snowglobes

I've always had a thing for snowglobes and things filled with water. I think just about anything looks better under glass. When I was a kid I got a plastic CapeCod keychain and it was just a tube with sand, some tiny shells and rocks, and a small piece of seaweed. It looked so cool- I wish I knew where it was now.

I did a search online for snowglobes and these were the best pictures I could find. One thing I really liked was the snowglobe sugar cookies. That's a really good idea, you get plastic globes at a craft store and cut them in half. I wanna do that except I wanna use those plastic wine glasses that you assemble. Then I'm gonna put Peeps and other Easter candy inside.