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Archive for the ‘MST3K’ Category

Callan Wink–“Dog Run Moon” (New Yorker, September 26, 2011)

Posted in Callan Wink, Consumerism, Dogs, Futility, Ironweed, Marriage Trouble, MST3K, New Yorker, Poetry, Short Story, Threats, Tom Waits, Violence, William Kennedy on October 3, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: TOM WAITS-Small Change (1976).

Half-naked woman on the cover and all (Wikipedia say that this might be Elvira, before she was “Elvira”), this is what people thing of when they think Tom Waits: That gravelly voice is in full form here, with poetic rants and bluesy, drunken musings.

The opening track, “Tom Traubert’s Blues (Four sheets to the wind in Copenhagen)” (I love that many of these titles have parenthetical additions) features the repeated chorus from “waltzing Matilda” which is kind of cheating, but which certainly makes this song potent and memorable.  “Step Right Up” is a skit and scat sales pitch for a miracle product.  It’s a wonderful piece of snark aimed at hucksters (this actually makes sense given that nearly 40 years later he still hates advertising (according to this interview on NPR)).

“Jitterbug Boy” is a mournful piano ballad.  It makes me think of William Kennedy’s Ironweed (of course, Waits was in the film of Ironweed, so maybe that’s got something to do with it).  “I Wish I was in New Orleans (In the Ninth Ward)” has a very Louis Armstrong feel to it (I never noticed how close this early style is to Armstrong until I started playing “What a Wonderful World” for my kids (no Tom for them yet). And of course, the Ninth Ward was really devastated by Hurricane Katrina, so maybe they should have used this as their anthem.

“The Piano’s Been Drinking” is forever etched in my mind from Mystery Science Theater 3000–Tom Servo does a wonderful Tom Waits impersonation.  Incidentally, Waits himself had been drinking, quite heavily at the time.  The track “Pasties and G String” is a scat-fueled description of the lady on the cover, more or less.  It’s accompanied by simply drums and a cymbal and is not too dissimilar from “Step Right Up.”  “Bad Liver and a Broken Heart” begins and ends with the melody of “As Time Goes By” and ends with a confession to drinking too much.

A song like “The One That Got Away” is Waits rambling around with his poetry in his gravelly, slurry followed by a sultry saxophone.  It sets a mood faster than anything I know.  Of course, if you don’t want that mood, you won’t want this album.

Of his first four albums, this one is my favorite (just ahead of Closing Time).  I’m not a huge fan of his early work, and I don’t listen to it all that often, but it’s a perfect treat when the mood strikes.  Waits also was beginning to get into something of a rut.  Despite his varied styles per album, all of the albums were beginning to blend a little.   There are still some great songs coming, but it would take until Swordfishtrombones before he went really far afield from this comfort zone.

[READ: September 21 2011] “Dog Run Moon”

This is one of those stories that seems so pointless that you can’t stop reading.  The good thing is that it was so well-written and engaging that its pointlessness is part of its charm.

As the story opens, Sid is running stark naked through a desert landscape–his feet are bleeding, he is covered in the red dust from the ground and there is a white Spaniel running alongside him.

Essentially, the entire story is that Sid has stolen this dog from Montana Bob and his friend Charlie Chaplin.  They caught him and he ran away with the dog through the desert.  As I say, it’s kind of pointless because he’s running naked and barefoot and they are chasing him on ATVs–he’s obviously not going to escape.  But what makes the story worth reading is the way the plot is irrelevant (except that it tells you a lot about Sid), because it’s really the impetus for his actions that comprises the story. (more…)

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Tom Bissell–“Cinema Crudité: The mysterious appeal of the post-camp cult film” (Harper’s, August 2010)

Posted in David Cross, Entertainment Weekly, Essays, Eurovision, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Harper's, MST3K, Paul Rudd, Safura, Sex, The Room, Tom Bissell, Yuck! on July 22, 2010| 3 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: SAFURA-“Drip Drop” (2010)

Azerbaijan came in 5th in this year’s Eurovision contest.  And they did it with this monstrosity of a song by Safura.  She sounds like so many pop chanteuses, pulling out all the stops on high notes, vibrato and even a fascinatingly accented English.

But just as I’m about to dismiss this song out of hand, she throws in this weird chorus of pizzicato “drip drops.”  Even they are not very compelling, but the juxtaposition of these two parts of the song are surprising enough to make the song interesting.

But I think that’s enough Eurovision for me.  And I didn’t even make it to the song by Latvia with the lines: “I’ve asked my Uncle Joe/But he can’t speak/Why does the wind still blow?/And blood still leaks?/So many questions now/With no reply/What for do people live until they die?/  Only Mr God knows why/But his phone today is out of range”

[READ: July 19, 2010] “Cinema Crudité”

This article is about cult films, although it focuses a lot on a film that I’ll never watch called The Room.  I had heard about the film in Entertainment Weekly a month or so ago.  They joked about its status as a midnight film that all manner of celebrities swear by: David Cross, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill etc.

This article goes into much greater depth than the EW piece did about what the film is actually like.  The author really points out all of its flaws and incongruities and everything else about the film that is awful.  And then he says that he’s watched it at least 20 times and couldn’t wait to interview the auteur behind it.

The article is great, by the way, Bissell did an excellent job. But I still don’t want to watch the film. (more…)

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Wacky Packages–with an interview with Art Spiegelman (2008)

Posted in Airlines, Art Spiegelman, Bob Newhart, Collecting, Comedy Album, Corporate skewering, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Jerry Seinfeld, MST3K, Russia, The Bob Newhart Show, War on December 2, 2008| 2 Comments »

wackySOUNDTRACK: BOB NEWHART-The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart (1960), The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back (1960) & Behind the Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart (1961).

newhart1We started watching The Bob Newhart Show on DVD (the 1970s one, not the one set in the inn).  I was surprised how much I liked it and how well it stood up, for the most part.  And it made me realize how much I liked Bob Newhart in general.  So, I figured I’d try some of his stand up and see what it was like.

newhart3I was delighted to find out that a joke from Mystery Science Theater 3000 was finally explained to me: the “Mrs Webb” joke that is muttered whenever an old lady is driving a car comes from the “Driving Instructor” joke on the first album (hereafter known as Button-Down).  It’s only taken a decade for me to get that joke!

newhart2But really, what do you get when you listen to a Newhart CD?  And what would a reviewer write about in a review of these CDs?  Well, I think it would go something like this:

[Reviewer]: Yea, hi, ha ha.  Hi.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: I was just listening to these Newhart CDs.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: No.  No, they’re not new, they’re almost 50 years old now.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Ha ha, right.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: No, they’re basically telephone conversations.  In most instances Bob plays a character listening to the person on the other end whom you never hear.  So, it’s almost entirely reaction shots.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Yes, they’re very funny.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: A few are dated.  The one about Khrushchev, “The Khrushchev Landing Rehearsal” (Button-Down), for example is pretty funny but was probably a lot funnier in 1960.  And “Driving Instructor” (Button-Down) is sexist in set-up (it’s sort of a joke about “women drivers” but once you get past that it applies to any new driver) but the joke is probably the funniest thing on any of the discs.  I was also concerned about “The Africa Movie” (Behind the Button) as it seemed potentially fraught with inappropriate humor, but it turned out to be very very funny, and a wonderful twist on expectations.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Yes, the skits do run pretty long.  Most are over 5 minutes, but he packs a lot of jokes into that time.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Well, sure there are a few that are only about 2 minutes long, and one that even comes close to set up/punchline: “TV Commercials” on Behind the Button (the dentist commercial in particular).  But even on that disc, the one sided nature of the conversations persists.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: There’s a Khrushchev skit on Behind the Button as well (“Tourist Meets Khrushchev”), but aside from knowing who he is, the jokes in that skit aren’t dated at all.  It’s all about an annoying tourist running into him somewhere…and the resultant consequences.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Yeah, Yeah. Boom!
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: It’s not violent, just implied.  Another potentially violent one is “Bus Drivers School” (Strikes Back) as he notes that it takes a certain type of sadist to drive a bus, if you know what I mean.  But, uh, well, the only one that gets somewhat risque is “The Uncle Freddie Show” which shows Newhart’s intolerance for kid’s TV show hosts.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: What?
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Well, Uncle Freddie doesn’t seem to like kids.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Oh.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Well, no, some other topics are “Nobody Will Ever Play Baseball” (Button-Down) because how could you possibly market it [“Why four balls, Abner?”]?
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Yes, a lot with marketing.  Like “Abe Lincoln Vs. Madison Avenue” (Button-Down) [“Keep the beard, Abe], and “Merchandising the Wright Brothers” (Button-Down) [“Where will we put the john, Orville?”].
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Precursor to what?
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Well, he does predate many, many comedians by having airline jokes.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: No, nothing about peanuts. But “The Grace L. Ferguson Airline (And Storm Door Co.)” (Strikes Back)” pretty much negates the need for any future airline humor.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: No, I’m not saying the new comedians aren’t funny.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: I do like Seinfeld.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: No, Newhart’s bit is about an airline run out of someone’s house.
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: It’s totally….
[ ]:
[Reviewer]: Oh, forget it.

All three discs are very funny.  I was under the impression that he only had these three discs, but I now understand he released four more discs through 1967, all of which are supposed to be funny, but which are unavailable right now.

[READ: Halloween 2008] Wacky Packages

So you don’t really READ this book.  This book is a collection of images from the Wacky Packages collection of trading cards that circulated from 1973-1974.  There were seven series of cards that ran during this time for a total of some 232 cards.  According to the site I link to below, there were 16 series in total, which makes sense, as I was only 5 when these 7 series came out, but I distinctly recall getting the packs myself. (more…)

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Michael J. Nelson–Mike Nelson’s Death Rat! (2003)

Posted in Adventure, Art Brut, Books about writers, Funny (ha ha), King Missile, Michael J. Nelson, Minnesota, MST3K, Prince, Smarty Pants on May 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: ART BRUT-It’s a Bit Complicated (2007).

Art Brut is a really great punky band from England. Their first album contained two great singles: “Formed a Band” and “My Little Brother.” The premise of the band is that they play fast but melodic songs–they’re punk, but not thrash, and the songs are crisp. But the really unique aspect is the singer, Eddie Argos, who basically talks rather than sings, in his strong London accent. In fact, in “Formed a Band” he states: “And yes, this is my singing voice; It’s not irony; And it’s not rock and roll; I’m just talking; To the kids.”

This sets the stage for the rest of that album and this, the successor. Now, a band like this is stuck with two options: continue with this style of speaking/singing and possibly become a novelty or move on to a new style, thereby belying the lyrics from their manifesto. They chose option one. And the good news is that, while not making a better album that the first one–which is pretty fantastic–they come up with a slightly more mature album, which is still pretty great.

When your style of music is almost a gimmick, it’s not easy to get past that. The first two or three times you listen to the record, you are totally sucked in by Argos talking to you. Sometimes he’s yelling, sometimes he’s almost singing, and most of the time he’s being cockily self-deprecating (how you do that, I’m not sure). And you start to think of the band as little more than a spoken word record with backing music. Until you start to listen to the music. Then you gain a fuller appreciation for the band. The musicians are all top notch, playing rhythmic and catchy punk. Some songs have great chugga chugga riffs, others have really catchy guitar soloing type riffs, and all the time, the songs maintain a verse/chorus structure that keeps the songs from being simply rants set to music.

The album is fast and furious. The songs are funny without being twee, or tiring themselves out. The closest band I could compare them to is King Missile. Those of you who remember “Detachable Penis” from the 90s know King Missile. (more…)

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Michael J. Nelson–Goth-Icky: A Macabre Menagerie of Morbid Monstrosities (2005) and Love Sick: A Smoldering Look at Love, Lust, and Marriage (2005)

Posted in Michael J. Nelson, MST3K, The Monkees on December 6, 2007| Leave a Comment »

goth.jpglove.jpgSOUNDTRACK: THE MONKEES: Best of the Monkees (2003).

monkees.jpgOne of my college roommates (a guy from Ireland) absolutely LOVED the Monkees (and he was from Ireland, which may not be that weird, but were the Monkees big in Ireland?). Anyhow, he not only had the boxed set that Rhino put out several years ago, but he actually owned all of their records. All of them! I didn’t even know they put out enough for a boxed set. (Evidently, they put out something like six, and then someone left the band and they kept going…what a sordid career!).

My wife, it turns out, also loved the Monkees, but that was when she was a kid, and she and her best friend watched them daily and knew all the songs. I recall watching the show myself, but when we Netflixed the first season I realized I didn’t remember anything about it. Oh, and that you really have to be in junior high to watch it, but I digress.

As a surprise I bought her the Best of the Monkees CD. She was thrilled to get it, and I’ve just been listening to it and realized that it’s a really great collection of songs. There is, of course, the argument that they didn’t play their own instruments, and this is true, somewhat. Although they did eventually start playing their own on later albums. But all that is just splitting hairs.

The album is certainly great. Wonderfully poppy songs, that are clearly from the late 60s/early 70s. Okay, so they didn’t write most of them, but who cares. Back then (as now of course) poppy bands didn’t write songs, they just sang them. I’m not sure if people know the Monkees anymore. I don’t know if the huge hits (“Last Train to Clarksville,” “I’m a Believer,” “Pleasant Valley Sunday”) are still familiar to people but man, they brought back fun memories. And, really, they hold up quite well as great little pop gems.

In addition to the poppy songs, there’s a few pretty ballads, a few all-out rockers, and, as befitting the trippiness of the show, some psychedelic freak-outs (check out “Randy Scouse Git” and “Porpoise Song”). It is nothing if not enjoyable. So put aside all the negative associations you may have with them, and cheer up, sleepy Jean. Oh what can it mean?

Oh yeah, and the CD comes with a 5 track bonus karaoke version of their biggest hits. Whoo hoo!

[READ: December 4, 2007] Goth-Icky & Love Sick

I discovered these books (and his other two in this series) when I was mooching around looking for information about Mystery Science Theater 3000. I learned that Mike Nelson had not only written some books, but that he got involved in this fun series of graphic heavy, silly confections. I bought one in the series, Happy Kitty Bunny Ponybecause how could you pass up a title like that? And, when Sarah looked at it, she discovered that the pictures in it would be make awesome decoupage. And, if you go to her Sew Buttons site, you’ll see some fabulous creations with some groovy pictures and instructions for how she did them.

(more…)

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Michael J. Nelson–Mike Nelson’s Movie Megacheese (2000)

Posted in Boston, MA, Essays, Film & TV, Michael J. Nelson, MST3K, Spoon, Wilco on November 10, 2007| Leave a Comment »

megacheese.jpgSOUNDTRACK: SPOON-Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (2007).

gagaga.jpgThis record was heralded as the greatest thing ever when it was released. Every review I read tried to outdo the other reviews with praise for this record. I can be swayed by reviews, especially if everyone is in consensus of a CD. And, I had put Spoon on my short list of bands to check out, so why not check out the best record of the year?

Well, as it turned out I was really unimpressed with it when I put it on. The first song, “Don’t Make Me a Target” was really solid, but the rest sort of drifted away into a mist of meaninglessness. In fact, the repetitive riff of “The Ghost of You Lingers” made it impossible for me to think of anything but Bon Jovi’s “Runaway,” and I will forever curse them for that.

Usually, if I’m not that impressed with an album, I don’t listen to it that much. I try to give everything 3 or 4 listens to make sure, but if nothing clicks, then that’s it. For reasons that I won’t go into, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga got multiple airings in my house, and then, sometime around the 12th listen, it really clicked, and I got it. What’s especially weird about this is that it’s not even a very complicated album (usually some of those prog rock records take lots of listens to really get it), in fact many of the songs are downright minimalist. So what was the hold up? I have no idea.

I’m not willing to say it’s the best record of the year, or even that it’s my favorite recent record. But now that I found the key to it, I really do enjoy it, and I’m listening to it with new ears. It reminds me of a more commercial Wilco (the harder, rockier Wilco of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot). So if you’ve been put off by the hype of this record and aren’t impressed, let it sink in, maybe you’ll find it enjoyable too.

[READ: November 8, 2007] Movie Megacheese.

The most exciting thing that happened to me when I went to Boston College was that my cable TV selection improved vastly. I was exposed to the Comedy Channel or Ha! or whatever it was called before it turned into Comedy Central. And the best thing I had ever seen was Mystery Science Theater 3000. It had everything–cheesy movies, snarky comments, puppets, a silhouette on the bottom of the screen! It was amazing. My only regret was that I had missed so many seasons of it. Well, of course, silly me, Comedy Central is king of the reruns and soon, I too was circulating the tapes with the rest of them. (more…)

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