Well, once again, I had a gap between newsletters. Look, I’m not trying to get paid for this unless the day job falls through, but I do consistently put links and things away for new installments. The actual EDITING of the newsletter is where I falter.
Anyway, life stuff: Not much, though I had to do a great deal of cleaning to get my house back in order after moving back in following my black mold crisis, and I took a trip to Charlottesville, VA, and to DC where I went to bookstores, here's a nice picture of a comics shop window:
…and I saw a live version of the Canadian comedy series LETTERKENNY, which is on Hulu and will make you happy if you haven't seen it, and the live show was just some sketches and stand-up and wasn't essential but dang it was good to finally see after getting tickets two years ago:
…and later my car got a flat that turned into a very expensive replacement for all the tires and other things they found off when they inspected it, and I had a benign cyst removed from the back of my head, and I de-upholstered and threw out a chair I’d had for years that was falling apart, and I went to a Van Gogh “immersive” exhibit that was very soothing:
….and I went to Heroes Con in Charlotte and saw some old friends and somehow managed to not get Covid and here's a Peacemaker cosplayer:
…and it looks like I’ll be teaching a volunteer class for retirees on the films of Studio Ghibli this fall and of course, I saw some movies and watched too much TV.
Well, here are some of the things I’ve encountered in the meantime.
MANY COOL CLIPS I DID NOT FIND MYSELF:
A great many links I steal for sharing come from the pre-shows at the Alamo Drafthouse theater. We got one in Raleigh a few years ago pre-plague, and I always get to the movie at least a half-hour before showtime, because instead of the same mass of soda and army recruiting commercials, they show curated clips specific to the movie you’re about to see.
For example, the very entertaining Nicolas Cage vehicle THE UNBEARABLE WEIGHT OF MASSIVE TALENT included this clip from an interview early in Cage’s career:
Or before a retro screening of ROBOCOP, they included some of Robo’s craziest pop-cultural moments, such as saving Pee-wee Herman from ED-209 at the Oscars:
Or before THE BOB’S BURGERS MOVIE, which made me laugh mightily (and there’s an excellent profile of the show’s creator, Loren Bouchard, here), they had several crazy music videos of burger-themed songs:
MORE THINGS THAT RE MORE RANDOM THAN USUAL:
-The Internet Archive has all the episodes of Nickeloedeon’s summer camp comedy SALUTE YOUR SHORTS in low quality and half the episodes are mislabeled, but danging, I’ll take this until there are some legal Blu-Rays.
-A large collection of Disney magazines
-Andy Weir, author of THE MARTIAN, has an interpretation of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” that adds SO MUCH to the song.
-A hilarious mash-up of two key elements of Seattle in the 1990s:
-With BETTER CALL SAUL coming to an end, a reminder of the music video with expert picker Junior Brown originally used to promote the show:
Several Psychedelic Things
In trying to organize many links into a reasonable length for one newsletter, I found a number had an unintended common thematic element:
-An animated children’s music video from future demon rock legend Ronnie James Dio that makes me happy and has made several people I’ve sent it to happy as well:
A strange and upsetting cover to an anti-drug pamphlet, but I dig the colors:
-Ever seen Salvador Dali’s illustrations for ALICE IN WONDERLAND?
-Been waiting half my life to see this again — the E! TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY on the surreal children’s shows of Sid and Marty Krofft, such as H.R. PUFNSTUF and LAND OF THE LOST. There are some bizarre stories, such as how they opened an indoor amusement park in downtown Atlanta in a building that today houses the headquarters of CNN.
-And having mentioned Bob Odenkirk above, here’s the MR. SHOW “Altered States of Drugachusettes” sketch they did parodying the Kroffts. Be Cool!
AND FINALLY:
A compilation of the baffling (fake) “Old Polish Proverbs” proffered by George Peppard on BANACEK:
I have literally an entire newsletter’s worth of other material that I’m going to try and send out tomorrow! Let me know if you enjoy these!