BETTER CALL SAUL

Back when I played electric guitar I couldn't do sweeps. So I watched this show (and listened to the themesong) instead. 

"Why did God make snakes before lawyers? He needed the practice!"

"That's my motto: 'Justice Matters Most.'"

BROOKLYN 99

ALIENS

When I was in Winnipeg working at Palliser there was a guy in Shipping who saw this movie a bunch of times. I kinda get it. I remember seeing it in the balcony of the Met. And I saw it a bunch of times on the VCR. But that's about it, really. 

FZRM!

When I was working at the Astral Photo in Winnipeg’s Eaton Place it was a privilege to behold a long-haired guy and his buddy play every single boom box we had in the store. 

“Nice tape,” I whimpered. Even though it was a TDK cassette of Led Zeppelin 2, I could recognize it. 

The long-haired (but muscular) kid whirled around. “Fucking Zeppelin rules, man!” And, Dear Reader, I have used those initials on CDs and playlists ever since.

"I feel as if...Whisky Prajer

might use those letters!"

ALIEN

I know it's old, but this movie changed the way everything looked. 

Holiday drinking

You could check this out. Or you could just drink eggnog. 

No choice, really.

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

A WP flashback. 

Ah, James Bond: you had all the moves!

THE SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS MOVIE

I'm surprised I have so much memorized. ("Surprised," he says! Sure sure...)

LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION

Saturday nights were a riot, Dear Reader -- trust me. 

The highly-immitated HP Lovecraft

When REH calls you a racist, you know you're a racist. 

Still, nobody could write 'em like HP Lovecraft. 

illo by Barret Chapman

SHREK

Gene Siskel used to say, "A viewer can only see Shrek for the first time once." But a commited movie goer can wish otherwise.

And just say "Farquad" in a British accent, really fast. 

HEAT

A WP flashback. 

GENERATION KILL

The Iraq Invasion was a hell of a thing. Besides, Cpl. Josh Ray Person taught me how best to shit. 

THE PRISONER

I would watch this show on Sunday in my basement suite in Toronto, while I recovered from the night before. Somebody said, "Sorry Trekkies but THIS is the best SF show on television!" I don't know if it's SF, but I kinda like The Prisoner. 

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS

I still like it. I remember taking a kid out of school to see this movie. I fell asleep during all the shooting, but I liked it. 

STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE 9

GODLESS

CHINATOWN PUNK WARS

The LA Scene: 

THE IRISHMAN

FIRST BLOOD (1982)

A WP flashback: 

PREDATOR (1987)

As my friend Keith pointed out, Predator is really two movies. I like the first one just fine: 

GET CARTER (2000)

It doesn't just have Sylvester Stallone, but Mickey Rourke, too!

SAVAGES

A WP flashback gif: here.

BULLET TO THE HEAD

Because I'm on a Walter Hill and Sylvester Stallone kick: 

HELL OR HIGH WATER

 Because I'm on a Jeff Bridges kick: 

WILD BILL

FERRY: THE SERIES

Hemorrhagic stroke reflections

 I have no idea how many posts this will be, but here goes: 

1. It takes a bloody long time

I watched a video of a kid learning to walk and thought, "Yes! That's it!"

Only it wasn't. By a long shot. 

Before the stroke I played guitar. I wasn't any good — a 7-year-old could do better — but I knew what I was doing. 

In last night's dream I was playing guitar — G, C, D, E, A, F (the "Campfire Chords") — and playing it very cleanly. I can do no such thing in reality. I was always bad. 

"Hey boss — de pain, de pain!"

Nobody tells a hemorrhagic stroke survivor about the pain — but it's there. It makes things very slow indeed. 

And because this was a song I was learning on guitar: 

URBANA '87

“You guys forgot to say how moving the mass communion at the end was.”

Well, maybe we didn’t forget. 

I’ll never forget the conversation I overheard at lunch. 

“I'd give it up to the Catholics. But I can’t get over the confessional,” said a girl. 

“The Bible says to confess your sins before men!” a Texan said. 

I also went out into the rain to get the new Daniel Amos record from a Christian bookstore I remembered that, boy oh boy. 

I also remembered the words to the conference themesong were set to the Vangelis tune from Chariots of Fire. “To live for my Faaaa-ther. To do His Good Will...”

I also got a spiffy new songbook out of the deal — I tried to remember that. 

But the mass communion — not so much. 

 “Daniel Amos is in this mess somewhere...”

THE RAT PACK

 

My history with this movie: we first saw it on a video cassette we rented from the local Video 99. Now it's here for you, Dear Reader. (The owner of the Video 99 really wanted us to go into the basement and rent some porn, but we said no thank you. What are you gonna do? The store was years away from the internet becoming popular and shutting it down.)

AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE, Spalding Gray

 

Spalding Gray committed suicide. There isn't anything to add, really. 

THE JUNGLE BOOK

My history with this movie: I first saw The Jungle Book during Film Night when my mother's family gathered at Madge Lake, Saskatchewan. The Jungle Book is kinda offensive but hey, I once wore yellow-face during a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado. Hey, I'm an offensive guy. 

PARANORMAN

The best review I read of ParaNorman is this one. 

THE JUNGLE BOOK

HAYWIRE

This, Dear Reader, is what I'm streaming: 

A WP flashback. 

SLY

I'm a fan. I actually saw Driven in the theatre. 

SPECTRAL vs. PREDATOR vs. ALIEN vs. FRANKENSTEIN

The makers of Spectral really love technology, especially military technology. 

The maker of Alien famously said the movie was just like Frankenstein. I guess the Xenomorph was heavy, so it got parked in the shadows until the very end of the movie. 

Mary Shelley's novel was against technology. As for the Boris Karloff movie, well... 

No, give me Predator every time. No technology whatsoever, just a bunch of mud and fire.  

The toybox ain't what it used to be!

SPECTRAL

 

MOXIE GILLETTE wins the trophy on Penn & Teller's FOOL US

 

“Holy shit and holy cow...”

Here is a link to Godspeed You! Black Emperor's response to getting nominated for a Juno Prize as “Best New Band” (looks like it’s gone 404 — hmm, pity given how much I quote it). 

But this hasn't! This is a link to the letter Johnny Rotten sent to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. 

Indo Mi Goring noodles (and a hemorrhagic stroke update)

I had KD, but it ain't Indo Mi Goring noodles . 

*****

I miss email exchanges with Mary Strachan Scriver. 

This is a WP Flashback. I keep meaning to tell her, “Dyeng is the easy part.” I suspect she’d agree. 

*****

While I'm at it, this is a link to some snippets of a T Bone Burnett performance and interview. 

I'm back in business!

With a little help, I found the Grid 3 virtual keyboard. And you know what that means, Dear Reader! More exclamation marks!!!

A computer mishap

I  believe I eliminated the virtual keyboard I use when I erased cookies. I still have the Google keyboard but apologies Dear Reader if I don't post as often. The  Google keyboard is very finicky for one thing -- a quote-unquote feature is it will not allow me to use any punctuation except the period.

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

Because The Bent-Neck Lady in The Haunting Of Hill House wasn't scary enough... 

... and I completely missed the unbroken shot in Episode 5. 

"René Girard"? Riiiiight.

 This is the ALD link to an article about René Girard. 

I used "whiskyprajer@yahoo.ca" -- consider this your permission, Dear Reader. 

Metal has a problem

Yeah, maybe Science says... 

I can confirm this action. 

Not just at Meshuggah and Lamb of God concerts, but elsewhere -- hugs were the norm. 

Samuel R. Delany

When I was sick I read Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany. I borrowed the Harper Collins Bantam pulp paperback from the local library. That book really put the zap on me. 

This is the Dhalgren wiki; this is a New Yorker profile; and this is an LARB interview with Sam "Chip" Delany. 

RIP Suzanne Somers

I never really "got" Three's A Company. but Suzanne Somers sure had John Ritter beat to pieces. 

As MAD Magazine says: 

"PLAY with yourself BOY."

My blog "rules"

Blame Joel. 

I used to blog because I couldn't find it on the Internet. I obviously don't post that way anymore. 

These days I use Blogspot to keep track of what I stream (mostly on Netflix). 

"What fun!"

1967 AutoWorld Catalog

Following Thanksgiving dinner, in the pantry of my Grandparents' house I found an old AutoWorld Catalog. I perused the pulp pages of that thing like they were sacred literature. 

I also spent a lot of time with this comicbook (our father eventually hid it -- or at least he tried to):

Sunrise Semester on SCTV

While I'm on an SCTV kick, this is Andrea Martin as Dr. Cheryl Kinsey: 

My mother would watch this and laugh. So you know why I turned out the way I did, Dear Reader. 

Hemorrhagic stroke update

I watch the documentaries of hemorrhagic stroke survivors -- love 'em! -- but quickly realized I would be dead anywhere but here, and married to this lovely person. 

I would also be dead without your support. I can't say it enough -- thank you, thank you, thank you!

Harold Ramis on SCTV

And this is Dave Thomas (and Andrea Martin, Joe Flaherty, Robin Duke, Tony Rosato and Rick Moranis. Missing is Catherine O'Hara, but you can't have your cake and eat it, too, or so I'm told) not Harold Ramis: 

Canuckle-head Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving weekend for us Canuckle-heads. As Earl Camembert from SCTV News would say, "Have a Happy!": 

Linda Blair

You already have Firefox with NoScripts so this is the Linda Blair link. 

And, just for laughs, here (again) is the YouTube video of the original audience of The Exorcist (for some funny reason Blogspot doesn't want to display it (must be an Exorcist thing) -- you'll just have to go there youself):

I've got the drooling down

but I'm still working on the other stuff.

Watching CLARK

Because I've finished watching Disenchantment: 

"BLACK HOLE SUN" and "THE NIGHT THEY DROVE OL' DIXIE DOWN"

This the original "Black Hole Sun": 

And this is a cover (when I was a young father I used to say, and the kids got tired of hearing it, "Always make the song your own. Never do just a cover.")

Having said that (again and again) I'm with Joel Swagman -- Joan Baez does the best version of "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down": 

A song that only a Mohawk and a bunch of Canadians could do: 

Re-watching A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES

WP flashback: here. 

Re-watching STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE

The work of ta progeny: 

Links: other work done by Luce here, here and here, for starters. 

More JAMES MCMURTRY

WILL & GRACE

I’m thinking a lot about Jack’s farewell: “See ya. Wouldn’t wanna bee ya.”

FAWLTY TOWERS

 John Cleese's true métier. To understand me, you have to watch Fawlty Towers.  

“You’ll have to forgive Manuel

– he’s from Barcelona!”

The theory among staff at Britnell’s was that John Cleese did his best work when he was married to Connie Booth. Whatever — I was just happy to be seeing him again.  

DISENCHANTMENT

I should have written something. But c'mon: Matt Groening, a cartoon queen in a dominatrix costume and a black demon who answers to "Lucie"? I ate it up like candy! (the only thing missing was a white demon who answered to "Maddi.")

I even started saying, “bum-bum” (“Noice!”) Surely there’s some kind of award for all that.

PMA & the hemorrhagic stroke

Prior to the hemorrhagic stroke I was a cynical bastatard and listened to a lot of James McMurtry. But a person never knows how the hemorrhagic stroke might affect the attitude. 

I like to think I'm still pretty cynical. And I still listen to a lot of James McMurtry -- with, or without, The Heartless Bastards. 

TRUTHLESS HEROES by Project 86

My most-listened-to CD was Truthless Heroes by Project 86. I bought it at David Miller Books — a Christian outfit — and it got me through two Republican Presidents (even though Canuckle-heads have typically fared better with Republicans in Office), including the last one. Only Andrew Schwab can scream, “You can’t tell me who I am!” and make the words sound like a cry of defiance and despair. 

Apparently the A&R guy made the making of Truthless Heroes a hellish experience. That’s too bad, because it’s the best thing Project 86 have done. 

Links: John DiBiase, “Jesus Freak,” review here. Andrew Schwab interview here. WP flashback: The Book Beneath The Bed here (another David Miller purchase). 

Re-watching TRON (1982)

A different Met memory — watching Tron with my younger brother. We both merrily flunked our typing classes (different teachers). “It’s safe to say I ll never use that skill again!” — little did we know that computers (and phones!) would take over the world and typing was the only high school skill we’d use. 

The Tron video game was one of the few in a cabinet at Mother Truckers in downtown Winnipeg. It featured a showdown with Light-Discs. I spent a lot of quarters on it. In hindsight it was easy-peasy, but it sure didn’t feel like it at the time. Today Linux computers can quickly download the Light-Cycle game. 

Wow, the movie is boring — even with Jeff Bridges!

Re-watching THE BLACK HOLE (1979)

I originally saw The Black Hole with my motorcycle ridin’ buddy on a snowy night. His brother-in-law drove us to the Met in the family Duster and was listening to Led Zeppelin. I still associate their music with The Black Hole. Shreddies boxes were advertising for The Black Hole. Breakfast, nightfall — I couldn’t get away from it. 

Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! I might have pleasant memories, but that doesn’t mean I recommend The Black Hole — not at all. The Black Hole is a terrible movie. A retelling of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea with cute robots and more WOWIE-ZOWIE! special effects — please don’t watch it. And the ending is kinda weird (that link is only for people with NoScripts, though).  

BIG TURK chocolate bars

 “It is a lovely place, my house,” said the Queen. “I am sure you would like it. There are whole rooms full of Turkish Delight, and what’s more, I have no children of my own. I want a nice boy whom I could bring up as a Prince and who would be King of Narnia when I am gone. While he was Prince he would wear a gold crown and eat Turkish Delight all day long; and you are much the cleverest and handsomest young man I’ve ever met. I think I would like to make you the Prince — some day, when you bring the others to visit me.”

“Why not now?” said Edmund. His face had become very red and his mouth and fingers were sticky. He did not look either clever or handsome whatever the Queen might say. 

The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe

by CS Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis might have made Turkish Delight sound like it tasted good, but Big Turk chocolate bars did not. They were waxy and bland.   

Pretty much as pictured.

I don’t miss 'em — and that’s saying something.

Re-watching PUMPING IRON (1977)

“Um, do you know where I parked a $100 million fighter-jet?”

Link. 

Re-watching THE WOLF OF WALL ST.

“Sell me this pen.” Jordan Belfort is a piece of work. And so is actor Leonardo DiCaprio. And so is director Martin Scorsese. 

Re-watching PAIN & GAIN

Because Dwayne Johnson is pretty cool. So is Mark Wahlberg. And so is Michael Bay!

Watching THE CROWN

TBH I'm not at all sure I'll be bothering with those seasons that don't involve Claire Foy and John Liithgow. 

Re-watching THE PUNISHER: WAR ZONE

Actor Thomas Jane famously groused about all the working-out in the previous Punisher movie. Meanwhile, War Zone director Lexi Alexander replaced Jane with Ray Stevenson, otherwise but had her own demons to slay. I left The Punisher: War Zone DVD  (hooray!) with my lovely assistant, and it cannot get ripped. But it is available to be streamed from multiple sources (hooray! again). 

Watching NIMONA

Know what you need to wash down The Spy? Nimona!

Watching THE SPY

I like Sacha Baron Cohen. 

Re-watching THE INCREDIBLES 2

I didn't really see it the first time. I had to take a telephone call. 

Watching NOBODY

Hooray, Bob Odenkirk! (And hooray Louis Prima!)

ATLANTA and stats

I've been watching Atlanta on Disney+. Atlanta, Georgia is its own thing, but I figure America doesn't have "a black problem," America has a cop problem, and these are my statistics for saying so. But you know what PM Benjamin Disraeli said about statistics. But watch Atlanta and make up your own damn mind. 

Re-watching THE HURT LOCKER

I'm also a sucker for the films  of Kathryn Bigelow (and have been since Blue Steel -- I remember seeing the original Point Break in a Toronto theatre, back in the day). 

Re-watching AMERICAN SNIPER

The Vice interview with Michael Moore here. 

Re-watching ZERO DARK THIRTY

Have I said this already? I'll watch anything with Jessica Chastain in it: 

Again with the blogging

(Blog post inspired by this one.)

I’ve been at for a while now (19 years!) and I just about died (several times!). So repetition is given. 

Still, I blog. I’ve told others it’s a Festschrift – my kids already ignore it, and Google doesn’t care – I figure, why not? If you’ve got a better idea, I’m receptive – you know how to find “Comments.” In the meantime... 

Matches

My co-o-worker -- a smoker -- requested a book of matches from NYC. My last night there, I left the Westside Y, ordered my first Guinness in a bottle and Quesadilla and got her those stinking matches. 

Because "Matches" sounds like "Badges." So there!

In a bottle, or from a can or (preferably) tap today's Guinness is much tastier. 

Back in Winnipeg

I got back to Winnipeg. The Canadian Customs Agent at the airport there opened my knapsack and used a pair of chopsticks to flip over my dirty gitch. She charged me for the Scrooge McDuck book, but that was all. 

I was back!

And really, what's not to trust? 

The Staten Island Ferry

I took the Staten Island Ferry and a lot of pictures of the World Trade Center (in my defense, the sun was finally breaking out from the clouds and I thought its light was hitting those buildings just right). 

I left my hat on a ferry bench and attempted to get a couple of German tourists to watch it for me. I even tried to impress them with my pidgin German, but they just ignored me. Or maybe it was my Bugs Bunny pin. Either way, I thought that was rude of them. 

Be honest: would you walk past this?

CATS! on Broadway

In Manhattan at the time one block was pristine while the next was grotty. 

New York on $50 a Day suggested I go to Broadway and pick up refund tickets to a show. Christopher Plummer was in Macbeth, right across the street from the theatre, but this was New York City  — I had even been swept at! — and I figured the poetry of TS Elliott was exactly right. I chose to see Cats! instead. 

It was exactly as advertised — a bunch of singing and dancing cats. 

"Jesus Christ, what a city!"

TS Elliott might have been name-checked in the showbill but any resemblance the flamboyant and loud show bore to his austere poetry was purely accidental. I’d been had, but I figured I got my money’s worth – I stayed. 

Times Square, 1987

I got off the subway train but I didn’t know the station. It was very dank and somebody was playing the electric violin. 

In one corner at the bottom of the stairway stood a black kid in white terrycloth tights, doing Karate Kid moves and singing “The Battle Hymn Of The Republic (Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory)” in an awful falsetto. He was staring straight at a Catholic nun while doing this — she was also black. She perched on her suitcase, smiling back at him. An older Jewish man tried to scoot by, loudly humming, “Hello, Dolly!” The kid whirled around and hoofed him in the bum. As we took the stairs the Jewish fellow turned to me and said,“Jesus Christ, what a city!”

I got to the top of the stairs and stood, blinking back the sunlight. 

I had arrived at Times Square.

The current view. 

Manhattan! A city of “firsts” Day 2, continued

I went to the Museum of Radio and Television. A person could sit in front of a television in a kiosk there and request video tapes of old shows there. My neighbor in the kiosk beside me leaned over and said, ”Whatcha watching?” The Man From U.N.C.L.E., naturally. “That’s pretty cool! I’ll have to watch that next time!” His school insisted he watch a documentary on the Civil Rights movement. I thought he was watching the better show. 

The New York Museum of Radio and Television also showed the work of Donald Bevan. This was the first time I’d seen anything by him, and I was suitably impressed. 

Central Park

 The West End Y was located near the northeast corner of Central Park. Once I had a room secured I mseyed over and saw a punk band performing in a concrete dome. 

The lead singer was dressed in a black raincoat (which he’d done up) and rolled-up Wellies. He lurched punkishly around the stage. 

I also took 35mm photos of the cherry blossoms. 

Manhattan! A city of “firsts” 2

 Back in Winnipeg the owner of a comicbook store asked me to get some Cherry Poptart comics (go ahead and look it up, but don’t say you weren’t warned!). Since I did business with him I devoted some attention to the matter but thought the fellows looked incredibly mean. I bought a copy of Maus and a huge book of Scrooge McDuck comics instead. 

I remember taking the subway and buses a lot. At one busstop a bunch of kids in yellow rain jackets came on and started chatting happily. I thought I was witnessing the denizens of a private school, but I didn’t know. 

I took the bus to the Guggenheim Museum.

It looks something like this.

 The Guggenheim was designed for the patron to take the elevator up and clomp down the spiraling ramp,stopping to goggle at artwork. I did this, and stopped at  Picasso’s Girl With Golden Hair. I stood for a very long time and admired Picasso's brushwork. That was the first time I ever “saw” a painting.

Manhattan! A city of “firsts” day 1

In the spring of 1987 our father transferred an airline ticket to fly anywhere in continental USA. I read a bunch of books and settled on NYC, NY. 

George HW Bush was POTUS at the time, and I remember staring at his portrait as a couple of US Customs Agents asked me a bunch of questions in the Winnipeg airport. They eventually let me go, even though I was a scruffy-looking guy in a U2 T-shirt and faded denims. 

I landed at La Guardia. I used a payphone to call some hotels, but was repeatedly told there was no room at the inn. I wasn't sweating it. I figured if I absolutely had to I could spend three days at the airport. 

I finally called the West Side YMCA. The young woman who answered the phone said, ”All of our bunk beds are taken right now. But if you come down here and stand in line maybe you’ll get a spot.”

I came down, alright – I took a bus, and saw my first Brownstone – but for $30 a night I booked a private room. 

The room had a twin bed,a small wood desk, a colour TV (on which I watched Al Goldstein’s sex tapes) and a window looking out on a roof. 

I went to a kiosk beside Central Park and bought some Calvin Klein conditioner I had seen in GQ Magazine I also walked over to a Pizza Hut and purchased and consumed a small pizza. 

Lincoln Center was close by – that first night at the Westside Y an Orchestra was practicing. I went up to my room, cracked open my copy of A Bonfire of the Vanities, and starrted reading. I felt like I was in the middle of the Orchestra Pit, and it was glorious!

More intact than my copy ever was.

Ken Wilber & Bruce Wagner

Two very different writers I haven't read much of but have thought a lot about. Mark Manson on The Rise &Fall of Ken Wilber (link) and Elizabeth Ellen interviewing Bruce Wagner (link).

Who's got the handsomer specs: 

Ken Wilber? Or... 

... Bruce Wagner?