Official Proclamation

As of November 2008, it is decreed that all arthouse films with a female protagonist must be marketed identically in this country's newspapers. None of this 'other kind of poster' bullshit. This is the design that elicits the most effective response.

Like a Hurricane

Paul Lynde hijacks the Channel 13 news team in Toledo, Ohio in 1978. One of my favourite inexplicable slabs of television history... I got hammered just watching this.

Bang Bang

The definitive version of course.


You could always count on Mina to do this song justice.


A French-Vietnamese cover by Thanh Lan is pretty awesome...


Equipe 84 did a hot psychedelic Italo version one evening on RAI...

Umm, can someone please put Raquel Welch's TV variety specials out on DVD?

My Name Is Potato

Southern Nights

Currently working through a particularly unshakeable earworm - Allen Toussaint's 'Southern Nights' (1975).

Glen Campbell took it to number one on the pop and country charts in 1977 - here he is performing it live in short shorts, with a little help from a friend.



Compare the hit version to the Toussaint original - with eerie lead vocals run through a Leslie speaker...



Meanwhile the Lawrence Welk version from 1979 makes the song sound like Huey Long might have used it as his campaign theme in the thirties...

NBC in the BA

Stanley White vs. Joey Tai

Galack Obama

Perhaps the Sci-Fi Channel should consider sending some reporters out to cover the GOP Convention in the Twin Cities this week. I mean, I know Battlestar Galactica is supposed to be a grand metaphor for the Iraq war and all, but come on - cylons running for president is laying it on a bit thick.

This election is the first between two nominees born outside of the continental United States (Barack was born in Hawaii; McCain, Panama) so why not add a VP pick who lives next door to Russia?

I can see the Ivan (Jason?) Reitman movie now - the 72 year president dies a few months after the inauguration and suddenly a 44-year-old Alaskan über-Soccer Mom becomes leader of the free world. With sexy results.

(Thanks, Ken!)

Frankenheimer Trailers

John Frankenheimer was one of the great black & white directors - in fact, I took his advice from an interview with him I saw once and checked out some of his cheesy eighties pulp like 52 Pick-Up with Roy Scheider and Dead Bang with Don Johnson but I turned the colour off on my TV; he said they were much better viewed in monochrome and yes, they are. He was also the master of the DVD director's commentary track. Too bad he never recorded one for Black Sunday...

Very disturbing trailer for The Manchurian Candidate (1962)



The most depressing movie ever made - Seconds (1966)



Cinerama-hyping TV trailer for the bloated Grand Prix (with Françoise Hardy!) (1966)



Am I the only one who prefers French Connection II (1975) to the original?

JLG & ACJ

More 'Waters of March' discoveries - here's a montage obviously made with love and some consideration.

Águas de Março

The sacred.



The profane.

The ABC Movie Of The Week

Mary Tyler Moore font slathered in Douglas Trumbull visual effects set to the music of Burt Bacharach... does it get any more seventies than this? I guess if you were to watch the clip while wearing orange Foster Grants after stirring your fondue...

Avant et Apres: Nino Ferrer

The mid-sixties yé-yé look

Disciplined Salut les Copains crowd enjoying the rave-up? Check.
Ray Davies meets Jacques Dutronc stage presence? Check.
Microphone framed by substantial sideburns of singer? Check.
Ruffled cuffs on Hammond organ? Check.
Belting out a song about pickles? Check.

The mid-seventies burnout look

Giant, foamy Civil War beard? Check.
The fashion sense of Mike Love at his most attenuated (beard-hat combo adorning gaunt skullface)? Check.
Walking around a waxy jungle diorama while ignoring a beautiful woman? Check.

Basking In Bacharach

Vedettes Sur 45

All I know is Françoise is on the charts and I think she placed ahead of 'More Zan Zis'. The year is 1982.