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