“Father Christmas” is the great rock band, The Kinks, hamming it up and clowning in their Christmas getups in this satirical music video. The Kinks’ main songwriter, Ray Davies, wrote this Christmas song in 1977 and its theme and attitude fits the times. Punk rock had basically broken out over the airwaves and this song talks about angry, annoyed kids demanding cash money and no toys for Christmas and beating up and mugging department store Santas and generally behaving very badly. Punk rock was antiestablishment and Christmas is based on long standing traditions, and, you get the idea. The music is very spirited and aggressive and [More]
Greg Lake was a legend in the annuls of progressive rock. He was a co-founder of King Crimson with Robert Fripp. With the band, Lake was a youthful, energetic lad with a sonorous voice and a powerful bass player. Although he remained for only one Crimson album, he did the vocals for this particular song on Crimson’s second recorded venture, “In The Wake Of Poseidon”, which I always found very appealing. Lake would go on to join Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer in ELP (Emerson, Lake and Palmer). This outfit allowed him to play guitar as well as handle bass and [More]
What happens when you go to explore a massive underground cave/water way and you get about three miles in and one mile down from the surface of the earth? Naturally, you run into hulking, ravenous monstrosities that can see in the dark better than you and are intelligent enough to trap and hunt you. And, much to your dismay, there is no dependable way out of this cave and the nightmarish situation you find yourself in. (Sounds like work. Just kidding.) Very effective horror/thriller that stays engaging until about the last 10 minutes of the movie. By that point, we [More]
Here’s some good background chatter to play during your groovy Halloween party or in your haunted playhouse. A veritable assemblage of white and pink noise layers and ambient pads build to a cacophony of dread induced drones. Lovely! Inspired by themes and nightmares explored by H.P. Lovecraft and his multifarious ghastly denizens of the very Deep and Dark.
Ah!!! Here is a delightful little trifle called “Race with the Devil”. Two vacationing couples take their RV out into the wild and make the mistake of setting up camp smack dab in the middle of human sacrifice country! Truly terrible luck. After this unfortunate incident, the movie becomes one long chase sequence as the blood thirsty devil worshippers continue in hot pursuit of the couples. Great action and some nice turns by the always dependable actors Warren Oates and Peter Fonda. This one is definitely not an Easy Ride.
Spend this Labor Day weekend absorbing this 7 plus hour combination of Frances Ford Coppola’s two finest “Godfather” entries. There is a lot of footage included that didn’t appear in “GF I or GF II” that fills in some of the storyline and weaves these two productions together. Beautiful cinematography, outstanding acting and eminently watchable storytelling all combine to make this a 7 hour viewing experience well worth the effort put in. Coppola’s directorial masterpiece, in my opinion, and magnificent acting from Marlon Brando and Al Pacino. You’ve got three days. Watch it more than once!
Check out the details of this juicy feud which erupted on the set of “Fast and Furious 8”. Seems Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and co-star Vin Diesel are at odds. This story unraveled on August 9, 2016. Don’t you just want to go see the latest installment of this franchise now? http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/the-rock-and-vin-diesel-are-beefin%E2%80%99/ar-BBvslBg?ocid=spartandhp
Creepy compendium of weird shit caught on video. We’ve got UFO’s, Bigfeet, ghostly mirages of floating cities. I mean, what else do you need to keep you entertained for a few minutes? Crack open a few cold ones and enjoy.
I like this talky, little tale of a group of characters trying to hole up in a cabin and ride out a nuclear holocaust. We see some stock footage at the start of this thing that compiles various angles of mushroom clouds. A prophetic voice over accompanies the footage. Great start! We get more rehashed, archive films of mountains, trees and the outdoors to enable the finishing up of the audio narrative. The folks who end up reluctantly spending time together are running out of space and time. Radioactive fallout may soon be encroaching onto their turf and the surrounding countryside is inhabited by [More]
Alan Vega was the vocal half of the synth duo, Suicide. Vega is no longer with us. Rev’s scary, repetitively sequenced synthesizer drives their songs accompanied by Vega’s frenzied, reverb-drenched rockabilly delivery. A very influential band whose work would impact many future musicians. Their early stuff is rawer and more intense.
Superb live document of this legendary rock band. Led Zeppelin seemed to be performing near their peak. They had by 1979 been recording and performing together for over a decade. The band sounds strong and tight. But, alas, things don’t always work out for the best, and this would be their last tour. A great sounding set from this great rock band.
Here is an easily digestible grouping of profiles on popular progressive rock bands from England. Witness some brilliant footage of King Crimson, Genesis and those lovable space cadets, Hawkwind in concert. This video might get you to start searching in depth for more clips on these bands. I am investigating Genesis. Such theatricality! The King Crimson segments featuring the lunatic percussion playing of Jamie Muir are also most memorable.
Another sad passing. This time it is Keith Emerson. A maestro and master of the keyboard instrument if ever one existed. His bands included The Nice, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, 3, and The Keith Emerson Band. Emerson fully integrated the newly emerging performance synthesizer into his already stellar piano and Hammond organ on stage arsenal. A true virtuoso and legendary performer, Emerson’s style and compositions will continue to influence far into the future. Seek out other clips on you tube and marvel.
Always a favorite Valentine’s Day view, “Fatal Attraction” documents a married man’s fling while the wife’s away that turns out to be the biggest mistake of his life. Rather than obediently disappearing after their wild weekend, Michael Douglas’ love interest, Glenn Close, chooses instead to hang around and try to become a more permanent fixture in his life. Of course, this was not a part of the plan in Douglas’ mind. Close is very single minded in her pursuit and will not think of hearing “no” as a response in her quest top become Douglas’ primary love interest. There is [More]