Some videogame thoughts from earlier in the year.
Interesting times for a "dead" genre. Well, interesting if you live in Japan anyway. Seems like every month or so a new shmup comes out for PS2 or even the Dreamcast. It's been downright overwhelming for a fan trying to keep up. So, prior to my surgery, I've made it a point to at least spend a little time with some of my newer shmups before I go under the knive.
One thing that's frustrating me a little bit is so many of the shmups coming out on Dreamcast are shortly followed by an enhanced port on PS2 and/or Xbox and Gamecube. Take, for instance, Chaos Field. The DC port is pretty much just the game while the PS2 and GC rev gets an arrange mode as well. (Not to mention the GC port actually got released domestically!)
The game itself feels like a tribute to Radiant Silvergun. It's almost all bosses, there's no powerups, but you do get different weapons through button combos, etc., etc. So far, I'm kind of ehh on it. (Remember, I wasn't a big RS fan either.) I'll have to come back to this one.
Another recent DC shmup, soon to come to PS2 and GC in enhanced form, is Radilgy. This is a slick cell shaded looking game with a lead character who reminds me of Marcy from Peanuts. The game, however, I'm not sure I quite get. Too many of the bullets get destroyed with your standard fire leading to a game that seems way too easy and uninteresting. I don't know how much play this one is going to get.
For PS2, I'm really digging Ibara. Another tribute game, this time it's Cave playing tribute to Raizing. The port is pretty lackluster, I mean, loading times in the level??? However, you do get an "original" mode where Ibara plays more like a Cave game and the same itself is pretty fun, assuming you like Battle Garegga, which this takes a lot from. It's hard not to wish the port was a little better though.
Speaking of bad ports, Gigawing Generations is almost jawdropping ugly. Gameplay wise, it's pretty much the same deflect the bullets/collect the medals gameplay as the two previous installments, but this time the screen is vertically orientated rather than horizontal. The graphics are a trainwreck however. I can't find much here to make me want to play it again, so far.
Then we have Homura. I like the atmosphere, it's a flying guy kind of game. There seems to be a similar "buzzing" play mechanic to the Castle Shikigami games where you have a more powerful shot by playing chicken with enemy fire. I don't have it all figured out yet, but this one is promising.
Last game I have to check out is Raiden III, perhaps the grandfather of all the tribute shmups. If you like Raiden, you'll like this one as it looks, sounds and feels like Raiden. Luckily, I like Raiden. Smile
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Cheepnis: Treeline/Mill Creek Mega Packs
This is another entry I'm porting over from my old blog that is about to vanish. Again, this entry needs some updating, and I don't really have the time, but I will mention a thing or two at the end.
I want to hit on one of the more infamous cheap DVD companies out there. I've seen their releases under the Mill Creek name and another one (Dollar something, the logo and layout looks almost the same) but most people refer to them as Treeline, the name most of their releases fall under. Unlike many others in the cheap DVD sweepstakes, Treeline actually has their product stocked in mainstream stores (Best Buy, Borders, etc.) as well as Big Lots and dollar stores. Well, their "top of the line" product, anyway.
You see, Treeline is the company responsible for the "megapack." In side a box about the size of a modern PC game, you get 50, yes, 50 movies of a featured theme or genre. The kicker being, these sets are easily found for around $20-$25 (even less if you buy on line.)
Sound too good to be true? Well, it isn't, but there's a catch...
I own five of these sets. Two horror sets (Horror Classics and Chilling Classics, more on that one in a bit,) the Sci Fi set, the Martial Arts set and 100 Classic Cartoons, which is a slightly different animal. The packaging is very similar to the early Atari 2600 carts in that the box opens like a hollowed out book and the DVDs are each in a cardboard sleeve in the middle. Two pieces of Velcro keep the cover shut so your discs don't spill out. It gets the job done, but it's not packaging that's going to hold up over the long haul.
The idea of buying a crap load of movies by genre is a novel one (though I think Brentwood may have done it first) but Treeline seems to play a bit loose with the definitions. I consider myself to have a pretty liberal definition of sci fi, but I don't consider sword and sandal flicks (like Hercules) or jungle pics (such as the abysmal She Gods of the Coral Reef) sci-fi. Nor would I consider Metropolis horror. Regardless, and lucky for me, they're all films I'm interested in, but be warned that Treeline plays a bit loose with their classifications.
Also, prepare yourself for some real dregs among the gems. There are a lot of movies on these sets I haven't seen other bottom of the barrel companies touch and after watching them, I can see why. There are some real stinkers here, and this is coming from someone who likes crap B-movies. Still, at the price per movie, it's not that big a loss if you don't like a few of them.
For those of you unsure if you want to take the 50 movie plunge, Treeline offers pretty much all their sets in smaller bites, assuming you can find them. I've seen 2,4,10 and 20 packs of their movies in stores. There aren't any different movies, it's just the same discs from the sets sold in smaller numbers (or in the case of the two pack, sold as a single sided disc.)
Now, the catch I was mentioning earlier. (As if the previous things I mentioned weren't "catch" enough.) Each of these sets contains 50 full length movies on 12 DVDs. Now, the discs are double sided, thankfully, but they're single layer which means you get 3-4 hours of video on a disc designed to comfortable hold about 2.
How do they do it? Compression. Ironically, the fact that many of these movies are lousy prints works in the set's favor here because the flaws in the film help to hide the compression artifacts. Still, you don't have to have a HDTV to notice blocks, digital blips and some really nasty blacks.
Is it enough to make these movies unwatchable? It really depends. It's annoying, but usually I can forget about it. Still, if you have a big screen TV, I'm sure these discs are going to look like ass on it and if you're a videophile, you're probably going to get more wrapped up in counting the compression artifacts than the movies.
Really, these discs are the DVD equivalent of old cheapie EP mode VHS tapes. If you can deal with those, you can deal with this.
Now, the 100 Cartoon set is a little different. It also features a lot less content for the same price as 100 cartoons still takes up a lot less time than 50 movies. The good thing is, the cartoons haven't been compressed to hell, for the most part. There's a few that look pixelated and have some severe ghosting. Strangely, one of them I have on another disc with the exact same flaws, which leads me to believe Treeline might be ripping other people's discs.
And speaking of ripping other people's discs, there's a bit of controversy on some of the movie message boards about the sources for Treeline's sets. Some people feel the company is just ripping and recompressing other people's transfers. Kind of a bummer, if it's true, but in the world of public domain, there isn't a whole lot you can do about it.
Speaking of public domain, it should go without saying that almost all of Treeline's product is public domain stuff from the 30s-60s. The real head scratcher is the 50 Chilling Classics set though, which features newer films including Driller Killer and Peter Jackson's Bad Taste which are almost certainty not public domain. I've heard rumors that this set has been pulled along with a "Gunfighters" set which includes some copywrited spaghetti westerns. Oops.
On the positive side of things, if you're a fan of MST3K, buying the Horror and Sci-Fi sets will net you a ton of movies featured on the show. Some of the Hercules, some of the Gameras (albiet in the original AIP dubs, not the beloved Sandy Frank re-dubs from the 80s,) some Bela Lugosi, the Beast of Yucca Flats and Robot Monster, to name just a handfull. You'll easily find just as many movies on these sets that could have been fodder for Joel and the bots.
I should also mention that inspite of the quality, there's something really satisfying about having an instant movie collection for cheap. I bought a few of these sets for less than $10 on Amazon. Even if they aren't much to look at, that's a killer deal.
----------------------------
OK, since I wrote that, Mill Creek has releases several new sets, some with some amazing titles. The Chillers set is more recent horror stuff, the Drive-In set is just amazing sleeze, there's a Warriors set, if you're into the sword and sandal thing and there's another sci-fi set soon to be released. The quality is still crap, and apparently they've been watermarking their movies at various points (ironic, considering they swipe most of what they have from old VHS tapes.)
There's also been some pretty sketchy copywrite stuff going on, espically on the Chillers set. It's highly unlikely that Peter Jackson's Bad Taste would be licensed cheap enought to appear on a 50 movies for $30 box.
There's also a bit of double dipping going on, though not as much as you'd expect. Even then, sometimes they've actually upgraded the source (I think Legend of Bigfood went from pan and scan to letterboxed, for instance.) Someone on the Lanternia forums did a huge cross reference list for titles and collections. Look it up, if you're interested.
I want to hit on one of the more infamous cheap DVD companies out there. I've seen their releases under the Mill Creek name and another one (Dollar something, the logo and layout looks almost the same) but most people refer to them as Treeline, the name most of their releases fall under. Unlike many others in the cheap DVD sweepstakes, Treeline actually has their product stocked in mainstream stores (Best Buy, Borders, etc.) as well as Big Lots and dollar stores. Well, their "top of the line" product, anyway.
You see, Treeline is the company responsible for the "megapack." In side a box about the size of a modern PC game, you get 50, yes, 50 movies of a featured theme or genre. The kicker being, these sets are easily found for around $20-$25 (even less if you buy on line.)
Sound too good to be true? Well, it isn't, but there's a catch...
I own five of these sets. Two horror sets (Horror Classics and Chilling Classics, more on that one in a bit,) the Sci Fi set, the Martial Arts set and 100 Classic Cartoons, which is a slightly different animal. The packaging is very similar to the early Atari 2600 carts in that the box opens like a hollowed out book and the DVDs are each in a cardboard sleeve in the middle. Two pieces of Velcro keep the cover shut so your discs don't spill out. It gets the job done, but it's not packaging that's going to hold up over the long haul.
The idea of buying a crap load of movies by genre is a novel one (though I think Brentwood may have done it first) but Treeline seems to play a bit loose with the definitions. I consider myself to have a pretty liberal definition of sci fi, but I don't consider sword and sandal flicks (like Hercules) or jungle pics (such as the abysmal She Gods of the Coral Reef) sci-fi. Nor would I consider Metropolis horror. Regardless, and lucky for me, they're all films I'm interested in, but be warned that Treeline plays a bit loose with their classifications.
Also, prepare yourself for some real dregs among the gems. There are a lot of movies on these sets I haven't seen other bottom of the barrel companies touch and after watching them, I can see why. There are some real stinkers here, and this is coming from someone who likes crap B-movies. Still, at the price per movie, it's not that big a loss if you don't like a few of them.
For those of you unsure if you want to take the 50 movie plunge, Treeline offers pretty much all their sets in smaller bites, assuming you can find them. I've seen 2,4,10 and 20 packs of their movies in stores. There aren't any different movies, it's just the same discs from the sets sold in smaller numbers (or in the case of the two pack, sold as a single sided disc.)
Now, the catch I was mentioning earlier. (As if the previous things I mentioned weren't "catch" enough.) Each of these sets contains 50 full length movies on 12 DVDs. Now, the discs are double sided, thankfully, but they're single layer which means you get 3-4 hours of video on a disc designed to comfortable hold about 2.
How do they do it? Compression. Ironically, the fact that many of these movies are lousy prints works in the set's favor here because the flaws in the film help to hide the compression artifacts. Still, you don't have to have a HDTV to notice blocks, digital blips and some really nasty blacks.
Is it enough to make these movies unwatchable? It really depends. It's annoying, but usually I can forget about it. Still, if you have a big screen TV, I'm sure these discs are going to look like ass on it and if you're a videophile, you're probably going to get more wrapped up in counting the compression artifacts than the movies.
Really, these discs are the DVD equivalent of old cheapie EP mode VHS tapes. If you can deal with those, you can deal with this.
Now, the 100 Cartoon set is a little different. It also features a lot less content for the same price as 100 cartoons still takes up a lot less time than 50 movies. The good thing is, the cartoons haven't been compressed to hell, for the most part. There's a few that look pixelated and have some severe ghosting. Strangely, one of them I have on another disc with the exact same flaws, which leads me to believe Treeline might be ripping other people's discs.
And speaking of ripping other people's discs, there's a bit of controversy on some of the movie message boards about the sources for Treeline's sets. Some people feel the company is just ripping and recompressing other people's transfers. Kind of a bummer, if it's true, but in the world of public domain, there isn't a whole lot you can do about it.
Speaking of public domain, it should go without saying that almost all of Treeline's product is public domain stuff from the 30s-60s. The real head scratcher is the 50 Chilling Classics set though, which features newer films including Driller Killer and Peter Jackson's Bad Taste which are almost certainty not public domain. I've heard rumors that this set has been pulled along with a "Gunfighters" set which includes some copywrited spaghetti westerns. Oops.
On the positive side of things, if you're a fan of MST3K, buying the Horror and Sci-Fi sets will net you a ton of movies featured on the show. Some of the Hercules, some of the Gameras (albiet in the original AIP dubs, not the beloved Sandy Frank re-dubs from the 80s,) some Bela Lugosi, the Beast of Yucca Flats and Robot Monster, to name just a handfull. You'll easily find just as many movies on these sets that could have been fodder for Joel and the bots.
I should also mention that inspite of the quality, there's something really satisfying about having an instant movie collection for cheap. I bought a few of these sets for less than $10 on Amazon. Even if they aren't much to look at, that's a killer deal.
----------------------------
OK, since I wrote that, Mill Creek has releases several new sets, some with some amazing titles. The Chillers set is more recent horror stuff, the Drive-In set is just amazing sleeze, there's a Warriors set, if you're into the sword and sandal thing and there's another sci-fi set soon to be released. The quality is still crap, and apparently they've been watermarking their movies at various points (ironic, considering they swipe most of what they have from old VHS tapes.)
There's also been some pretty sketchy copywrite stuff going on, espically on the Chillers set. It's highly unlikely that Peter Jackson's Bad Taste would be licensed cheap enought to appear on a 50 movies for $30 box.
There's also a bit of double dipping going on, though not as much as you'd expect. Even then, sometimes they've actually upgraded the source (I think Legend of Bigfood went from pan and scan to letterboxed, for instance.) Someone on the Lanternia forums did a huge cross reference list for titles and collections. Look it up, if you're interested.
Cheepnis Review: Revolt of the Zombies/Vengeance of the Zombie
Old review of one of the discs from last year's insane Dollar Tree Haloween DVD collection. I still haven't had much time to watch the other 20 or so discs...
OK, I'm going to do a quick review of the first of the Family Value Halloween discs I've had a chance to watch. First side is Revolt of the Zombies from 1936. Apparently this is a sequel of sorts to the classic White Zombie and Lugosi's eyes make an uncredited guest appearance as the one thing in the movie that is even half way creepy.
In a nutshell, a Cambodian priest creates zombies to help the Allies win World War One, but now he's "trying to take over the white race". (Yes, that's in the movie.) So, the scientists have to find and destroy the secret, but of course it doesn't work out that way. Jealous guy discovers the secret and tries to use it to win the woman he loves from dashing other guy.
The movie itself is slow and talkie. It's more about a love triangle than zombies and the zombies are more about being hypnotized than being undead. Lots of wooden acting, inane dialogue and process shots. Reminds me of the kind of movie you'd see on the first season of MST3K.
Anyway, this is pretty typical Public Domain fare. The print isn't too bad and the encode actually looks good. I didn't notice ghosting and in place where the film isn't too scratchy, the image quality is pretty sharp, if a little grainy. Could be a lot worse, though I'd hardly recommend going out of your way for this film.
The flip side, Vengeance of the Zombies, is a horse of an entirely different color. First, it's a European flick from the early 70s, so expect a totally different flavor. Second it appears to be uncut, so there's boobs and blood. Not exactly family friendly. Third, it's actually pretty good, in a cheesy sort of way.
I gave this a pretty casual view, so I'll try to relate what happened as best I can remember. Basically you have some voodoo invoked to create an army of the undead to exact revenge killings. That's the crux of it, anyway. There's an Indian guru named Krishna Eye Rolling, the cute redhead and the police type guy. That's pretty much what you need to know.
I really dug this film as it was low budget without being low class. The effects were pretty cool and had a bit of a sense of humor about them. It wasn't really "scary", but I did have a good time trying to figure out what was going on.
The quality of this release, which doesn't seem to be public domain, is pretty good. It's full frame, but you don't feel like you're losing anything. The print is clean, though I wish the audio was clearer as the music is so good cop show funk type tunes. It looks like this DVD was sourced from video, but at least they used a good copy to source from, assuming Family Value actually encoded this themselves.
I'd say try to find this one for Vengeance. Well worth the $1. Revolt, I assure you, you can pass on watching guilt free.
This disc is also an excellent example of the lack of quality control on Family Value's packaging. First off, Vengeance is misspelled on the cover. On the back, Revolt's time is listed incorrectly, Vengenance has no time listed and the description for the movie is a riot. (Apparently it was lifted from a fan site.)
Speaking of listing times, it occured to me that one of the other FV discs I got was a twofer with The Phantom Creeps. The listed time was 256 min, which would be about the run time of the entire serial. Though the entire serial has been issued on a single disc, I'm guessing it was either a flipper or dual layer, because without major compression, there's no way you could fit 4+ hours on a single layer side of a disc, like the kind FV uses.
Again, FV must have pulled it's info off a website without any consideration for what was actually on the discs as putting the disc in a player reveals the seventy some-odd minute movie that was made from the serial for TV rather than the entire seiral itself. That makes a lot more sense and just FYI if you see that disc and are scratching your head like I was.
OK, I'm going to do a quick review of the first of the Family Value Halloween discs I've had a chance to watch. First side is Revolt of the Zombies from 1936. Apparently this is a sequel of sorts to the classic White Zombie and Lugosi's eyes make an uncredited guest appearance as the one thing in the movie that is even half way creepy.
In a nutshell, a Cambodian priest creates zombies to help the Allies win World War One, but now he's "trying to take over the white race". (Yes, that's in the movie.) So, the scientists have to find and destroy the secret, but of course it doesn't work out that way. Jealous guy discovers the secret and tries to use it to win the woman he loves from dashing other guy.
The movie itself is slow and talkie. It's more about a love triangle than zombies and the zombies are more about being hypnotized than being undead. Lots of wooden acting, inane dialogue and process shots. Reminds me of the kind of movie you'd see on the first season of MST3K.
Anyway, this is pretty typical Public Domain fare. The print isn't too bad and the encode actually looks good. I didn't notice ghosting and in place where the film isn't too scratchy, the image quality is pretty sharp, if a little grainy. Could be a lot worse, though I'd hardly recommend going out of your way for this film.
The flip side, Vengeance of the Zombies, is a horse of an entirely different color. First, it's a European flick from the early 70s, so expect a totally different flavor. Second it appears to be uncut, so there's boobs and blood. Not exactly family friendly. Third, it's actually pretty good, in a cheesy sort of way.
I gave this a pretty casual view, so I'll try to relate what happened as best I can remember. Basically you have some voodoo invoked to create an army of the undead to exact revenge killings. That's the crux of it, anyway. There's an Indian guru named Krishna Eye Rolling, the cute redhead and the police type guy. That's pretty much what you need to know.
I really dug this film as it was low budget without being low class. The effects were pretty cool and had a bit of a sense of humor about them. It wasn't really "scary", but I did have a good time trying to figure out what was going on.
The quality of this release, which doesn't seem to be public domain, is pretty good. It's full frame, but you don't feel like you're losing anything. The print is clean, though I wish the audio was clearer as the music is so good cop show funk type tunes. It looks like this DVD was sourced from video, but at least they used a good copy to source from, assuming Family Value actually encoded this themselves.
I'd say try to find this one for Vengeance. Well worth the $1. Revolt, I assure you, you can pass on watching guilt free.
This disc is also an excellent example of the lack of quality control on Family Value's packaging. First off, Vengeance is misspelled on the cover. On the back, Revolt's time is listed incorrectly, Vengenance has no time listed and the description for the movie is a riot. (Apparently it was lifted from a fan site.)
Speaking of listing times, it occured to me that one of the other FV discs I got was a twofer with The Phantom Creeps. The listed time was 256 min, which would be about the run time of the entire serial. Though the entire serial has been issued on a single disc, I'm guessing it was either a flipper or dual layer, because without major compression, there's no way you could fit 4+ hours on a single layer side of a disc, like the kind FV uses.
Again, FV must have pulled it's info off a website without any consideration for what was actually on the discs as putting the disc in a player reveals the seventy some-odd minute movie that was made from the serial for TV rather than the entire seiral itself. That makes a lot more sense and just FYI if you see that disc and are scratching your head like I was.
Cheepnis: Last year's Family Value Insanity.
Note: this is an old post I'm porting for posterity. Anyone who has followed me over here from my various Internet haunts will fondly remember the insane collection of Halloween discs released last year by Family Value. Here was my take on that. Hopefully they have something equally interesting up their sleeves this year, though all I've been hearing about is just some of last year's titles showing up again.
OK, kind of funny after my last post where I kind of blew off Treasure Box/Family Value, what happens but they unleash their Halloween collection. (Huge thanks to packratshow at http://www.livejournal.com/community/cheap_dvds/ for the heads up! Excellent live journal all about this stuff.) See, these things tend to be a bit seasonal in nature. If I had to guess, the two biggest movie/home video seasons would have to be Halloween and Christmas, so we're in the beginning of the good stuff now.
Packratshow has listed all the titles and whatnot http://www.livejournal.com/community/cheap_dvds/16409.html, so I'm not going to duplicate all that. (Plus he links to Imdb for all the films, whatta guy!) I managed to find every title on that list with just two trips to Dollar Tree. Other stores may carry these things, but around here, Dollar Tree seems to be the only ones to have them.
Well, let's see, Family Value (aka Treasure Box) has improved things a bit. Instead of the cardboard cases, they're now using those slimline Amaray cases* which I guess is a step up. Oddly enough, some of these discs weren't shrink wrapped. They just have a clear sticker over the side to prevent you from opening them and boosting the disc. I found a Gamera double feature (more on that later) like this and of course it was the one disc I managed to spill coffee on before getting home.
Family Value has also joined the double feature crowd, which seems to be the trend. It seems to me like the market is getting pretty saturated and god forbid anyone put some money into trying to clean up their prints, so to stand out, cram another movie on there. I'd almost be willing to bet, by Christmas we'll see the first 4 packs for $1 because now everyone is doing doubles.
Anyway, too often with these doubles what seems to happen is rather than make the media bigger, they just make the film smaller. Yay, compression. However, Family Value actually has made these twofers flippers so each film gets a side to itself. Sometimes, it's the little things that make life worth living.
As for the quality of the films, I'm still too early into it to really comment. I've only had time to watch one film and the quality was about what one could expect from a "cult" video label such as Something Weird. In fact, the quality combined with some of the titles featured in this batch, which aren't the usual Public Domain suspects, have raised some eyebrows among horror fans. There's a lot of good info http://p210.ezboard.com/fthelatarniaforumsfrm1.showMessage?topicID=492.topic about that and about the movies and whatnot.
The Gamera disc, not part of the Halloween discs but I picked it up in this batch, certainly seems shady as I think Retromedia has exclusive rights to Gamera vs. Monster X. The question is, did Family Value work out a deal on their own, did they not know or do they just not care? Like the Treasure Box discs I reviewed earlier, there's no info on the packaging, no company logo on the screen, further adding to the mystery. In fact, many of the discs say "Treasure Box" on the inner ring even though the packaging says "Family Value!"
For right now, that's about all I have. I've got a million movies to make it through right now, and I was planning on focusing on another company, but these discs needed some attention as they're pretty much going to be off the shelf in less than a month, assuming they get restocked at all. Based on what I've seen so far, I recommend these discs highly, if you can find them. Be warned, if you're a serious genre fan, you may be offended by the apparent theft of other people's transfers that's going on here.
*Side note: am I the only one who notices the slim cases these $1 dvds come in have a weird odor? I am a bit more sensitive to smell than the average bear, but I was nearly gaging going through a huge bin of these things.
OK, kind of funny after my last post where I kind of blew off Treasure Box/Family Value, what happens but they unleash their Halloween collection. (Huge thanks to packratshow at http://www.livejournal.com/community/cheap_dvds/ for the heads up! Excellent live journal all about this stuff.) See, these things tend to be a bit seasonal in nature. If I had to guess, the two biggest movie/home video seasons would have to be Halloween and Christmas, so we're in the beginning of the good stuff now.
Packratshow has listed all the titles and whatnot http://www.livejournal.com/community/cheap_dvds/16409.html, so I'm not going to duplicate all that. (Plus he links to Imdb for all the films, whatta guy!) I managed to find every title on that list with just two trips to Dollar Tree. Other stores may carry these things, but around here, Dollar Tree seems to be the only ones to have them.
Well, let's see, Family Value (aka Treasure Box) has improved things a bit. Instead of the cardboard cases, they're now using those slimline Amaray cases* which I guess is a step up. Oddly enough, some of these discs weren't shrink wrapped. They just have a clear sticker over the side to prevent you from opening them and boosting the disc. I found a Gamera double feature (more on that later) like this and of course it was the one disc I managed to spill coffee on before getting home.
Family Value has also joined the double feature crowd, which seems to be the trend. It seems to me like the market is getting pretty saturated and god forbid anyone put some money into trying to clean up their prints, so to stand out, cram another movie on there. I'd almost be willing to bet, by Christmas we'll see the first 4 packs for $1 because now everyone is doing doubles.
Anyway, too often with these doubles what seems to happen is rather than make the media bigger, they just make the film smaller. Yay, compression. However, Family Value actually has made these twofers flippers so each film gets a side to itself. Sometimes, it's the little things that make life worth living.
As for the quality of the films, I'm still too early into it to really comment. I've only had time to watch one film and the quality was about what one could expect from a "cult" video label such as Something Weird. In fact, the quality combined with some of the titles featured in this batch, which aren't the usual Public Domain suspects, have raised some eyebrows among horror fans. There's a lot of good info http://p210.ezboard.com/fthelatarniaforumsfrm1.showMessage?topicID=492.topic about that and about the movies and whatnot.
The Gamera disc, not part of the Halloween discs but I picked it up in this batch, certainly seems shady as I think Retromedia has exclusive rights to Gamera vs. Monster X. The question is, did Family Value work out a deal on their own, did they not know or do they just not care? Like the Treasure Box discs I reviewed earlier, there's no info on the packaging, no company logo on the screen, further adding to the mystery. In fact, many of the discs say "Treasure Box" on the inner ring even though the packaging says "Family Value!"
For right now, that's about all I have. I've got a million movies to make it through right now, and I was planning on focusing on another company, but these discs needed some attention as they're pretty much going to be off the shelf in less than a month, assuming they get restocked at all. Based on what I've seen so far, I recommend these discs highly, if you can find them. Be warned, if you're a serious genre fan, you may be offended by the apparent theft of other people's transfers that's going on here.
*Side note: am I the only one who notices the slim cases these $1 dvds come in have a weird odor? I am a bit more sensitive to smell than the average bear, but I was nearly gaging going through a huge bin of these things.
Cheepnis: Treasure Box/Family Value Collection
...and something about cartoons.
Note, this is almost a year old and could probably use an update when I get the time.
The first company I want to take a look at is probably the wrong way to start as the discs I have from them make a pretty good case against the cheap DVDs. They were, however, the first cheap discs I owned and some of the first I ever remember seeing. So, I guess that's why Treasure Box Collection (also know as Family Value Collection) have the honor of being the first company I'm going to talk about in my Cheepnis series.
I first started seeing TBC (as I'm going to abbreviate it) discs in Walgreen's drug stores a few years ago. Apparently the company is still in business, but they've changed their name to Family Value Collection. If you're so inclined, Dollar Tree seems to be the best place to look for them around these parts.
I received 5 discs as a stocking stuffer (which is a great use for these things, BTW), all of which were cartoon discs. The titles include "Superman and Friends," "Popeye and Friends," "Casper and Friends" and so on. More on that in a moment.
The discs come in a stiff laminated cardboard folder about the same size but about a third as thick as a regular DVD case. On the front is the "main" cartoon character and a few titles allegedly contained within are listed on the back. Not the worst packaging I've seen at this price point, but not the best.
The discs themselves are a little interesting. You put them in the player and get no FBI warning or company logo, just a very simple title screen and one option: play all. Each cartoon has it's own chapter (well, with the occasional exception where two 'toons are stuck together) so you can skip past the dreck, but you can't jump directly to a favorite or even see what all is on the disc.
Now, here's where I first learned a few rules of thumb when dealing with public domain cartoon DVDs. First rule: Beware the "...and Friends." This is a way for the DVD company to give the recognizable character top billing and pad the rest of the disc with obscure Noveltunes or Harvey junk. (I know, both have their fans, but the Harvey stuff really does nothing for me.)
In the case of the TBC "...and Friends" discs, this goes above and beyond making no sence. For example, the "Popeye and Friends" discs has only one Popeye cartoon and six Superman cartoons. The "Woody Woodpecker and Friends" disc has more Popeye cartoons than the Popeye disc and the Popeye disc has more Superman cartoons than the Superman disc! Not to mention the fact that the Superman disc totally blindsides you with nine episodes of a horrible Filmation series called "Fraidy Cat", a trick the Casper disc repeats with nine equally wreched "Packy and Wacky" 'toons.
Let's go back to the Superman and Popeye discs for the PD 'toon DVD rule of thumb number two: Expect duplicates. The three Superman 'toons on the Superman disc also show up on the Popeye disc. In fact one episode, "Billion Dollar Limited", makes a third appearance on the Casper disc as well. The sole Woody Woodpecker cartoon TBC has also serves three shifts and several others do double duity. This is just five discs from the same company. You can imagine how frustrating it gets when you start pulling other companies discs in the mix.
Getting back to packaging, rule number three is: Be skeptical of any titles listed on the back. It seems to me like most other companies are pretty close to accurate, but our friends at Treasure Box seemingly pull titles out of thin air to put on the back of these collections, when they list any at all. I don't think it's intentional deception as much as just lax quality control.
Finally, the fourth rule for cartoons: Expect the worst when it comes to quality. To be fair, a lot of this has to do with the prints these companies have to work with. They are almost always scratchy, jumpy, washed-out TV prints that were 16mm Eastmancolor reductions of the 35mm Technicolor originals. You can tell these cartoons were seen as little more than disposable filler by the way these prints have been mangled.
Now, Treasure Box Collection has gone the extra step and clearly taken their cartoons from consumer SLP VHS tapes. How do I know? Well, I remember what those things looked like and there's a sepcific image quality that thin tape moving at the slowest speed has. I can't describe it, but if you bought PD VHS tapes, you know what I'm talking about. Plus, there's one clumsy edit to a Popeye cartoon's title card that pausing on reveals another company's 1999 copyright. Heh.
I've read somewhere that there may be different versions of these discs floating around in the same packaging. Really, I wouldn't mess with them. You can find too many other cartoon collections that are better than this for the same price (Digiview's "Cartoon Craze" series, for instance.) I don't know if the quality of these discs is reflective of their entire catalog, but their "...and Friends" cartoon discs have made me a bit reluctant to check out anything else Treasure Box or Family Value has put out.
In case you're interested, here's another take on the discs from this company, including a couple of the cartoon disc I mentioned above. http://www.pop-arena.com/articles/dvds.html He seems to justify my fear of the rest of TBC's DVDs.
Also kids, really, stay away from those Fraidy Cat and Packy and Wacky cartoons. I'd rather seen an hour of "Gabby" or "Baby Huey" than one episode of those ever again. Nyah
Note, this is almost a year old and could probably use an update when I get the time.
The first company I want to take a look at is probably the wrong way to start as the discs I have from them make a pretty good case against the cheap DVDs. They were, however, the first cheap discs I owned and some of the first I ever remember seeing. So, I guess that's why Treasure Box Collection (also know as Family Value Collection) have the honor of being the first company I'm going to talk about in my Cheepnis series.
I first started seeing TBC (as I'm going to abbreviate it) discs in Walgreen's drug stores a few years ago. Apparently the company is still in business, but they've changed their name to Family Value Collection. If you're so inclined, Dollar Tree seems to be the best place to look for them around these parts.
I received 5 discs as a stocking stuffer (which is a great use for these things, BTW), all of which were cartoon discs. The titles include "Superman and Friends," "Popeye and Friends," "Casper and Friends" and so on. More on that in a moment.
The discs come in a stiff laminated cardboard folder about the same size but about a third as thick as a regular DVD case. On the front is the "main" cartoon character and a few titles allegedly contained within are listed on the back. Not the worst packaging I've seen at this price point, but not the best.
The discs themselves are a little interesting. You put them in the player and get no FBI warning or company logo, just a very simple title screen and one option: play all. Each cartoon has it's own chapter (well, with the occasional exception where two 'toons are stuck together) so you can skip past the dreck, but you can't jump directly to a favorite or even see what all is on the disc.
Now, here's where I first learned a few rules of thumb when dealing with public domain cartoon DVDs. First rule: Beware the "...and Friends." This is a way for the DVD company to give the recognizable character top billing and pad the rest of the disc with obscure Noveltunes or Harvey junk. (I know, both have their fans, but the Harvey stuff really does nothing for me.)
In the case of the TBC "...and Friends" discs, this goes above and beyond making no sence. For example, the "Popeye and Friends" discs has only one Popeye cartoon and six Superman cartoons. The "Woody Woodpecker and Friends" disc has more Popeye cartoons than the Popeye disc and the Popeye disc has more Superman cartoons than the Superman disc! Not to mention the fact that the Superman disc totally blindsides you with nine episodes of a horrible Filmation series called "Fraidy Cat", a trick the Casper disc repeats with nine equally wreched "Packy and Wacky" 'toons.
Let's go back to the Superman and Popeye discs for the PD 'toon DVD rule of thumb number two: Expect duplicates. The three Superman 'toons on the Superman disc also show up on the Popeye disc. In fact one episode, "Billion Dollar Limited", makes a third appearance on the Casper disc as well. The sole Woody Woodpecker cartoon TBC has also serves three shifts and several others do double duity. This is just five discs from the same company. You can imagine how frustrating it gets when you start pulling other companies discs in the mix.
Getting back to packaging, rule number three is: Be skeptical of any titles listed on the back. It seems to me like most other companies are pretty close to accurate, but our friends at Treasure Box seemingly pull titles out of thin air to put on the back of these collections, when they list any at all. I don't think it's intentional deception as much as just lax quality control.
Finally, the fourth rule for cartoons: Expect the worst when it comes to quality. To be fair, a lot of this has to do with the prints these companies have to work with. They are almost always scratchy, jumpy, washed-out TV prints that were 16mm Eastmancolor reductions of the 35mm Technicolor originals. You can tell these cartoons were seen as little more than disposable filler by the way these prints have been mangled.
Now, Treasure Box Collection has gone the extra step and clearly taken their cartoons from consumer SLP VHS tapes. How do I know? Well, I remember what those things looked like and there's a sepcific image quality that thin tape moving at the slowest speed has. I can't describe it, but if you bought PD VHS tapes, you know what I'm talking about. Plus, there's one clumsy edit to a Popeye cartoon's title card that pausing on reveals another company's 1999 copyright. Heh.
I've read somewhere that there may be different versions of these discs floating around in the same packaging. Really, I wouldn't mess with them. You can find too many other cartoon collections that are better than this for the same price (Digiview's "Cartoon Craze" series, for instance.) I don't know if the quality of these discs is reflective of their entire catalog, but their "...and Friends" cartoon discs have made me a bit reluctant to check out anything else Treasure Box or Family Value has put out.
In case you're interested, here's another take on the discs from this company, including a couple of the cartoon disc I mentioned above. http://www.pop-arena.com/articles/dvds.html He seems to justify my fear of the rest of TBC's DVDs.
Also kids, really, stay away from those Fraidy Cat and Packy and Wacky cartoons. I'd rather seen an hour of "Gabby" or "Baby Huey" than one episode of those ever again. Nyah
Friday, September 08, 2006
Cheepnis: Giant Monster Reviews
Note: another ported post from about a year ago. The old blog is going down and I just want to save a few reviews I wrote.
Alright. I'm going to review a few of the cheepie movies I've seen recently. Keep in mind, I'm writing these after the fact (and at work, don't tell!) and I'm just jotting down thoughts about the films rather than an in depth sort of thing.
Gammera the Invincible - (as seen on Treeline's 50 Sci-Fi Classics)
Y'know, I don't think I realized until I saw these films on MST3K that Gamera wasn't part of the Godzilla storyline. I don't exactly think that's an accident as Gamera is pretty much what happens when your rival is having crazy success with Godzilla and you want a piece of that action.
That said, this first Gamera movie is pretty good, if you like guys in rubber suits stomping Tokyo. Like Godzilla, there's an "atomic energy = bad" subtext here. It's been a while since I've seen the first Godzilla, but there isn't a whole lot I can think of to really separate these movies in my mind (hence my confusion earlier) except Godzilla is a lizard and Gamera is a turtle.
As for Gamera, the monster is pretty cool. The spinning flying thing is an interesting gimmick as well. You can also tell Daiei put some money into this one as the model work is good. (I always chuckle when Gammera destroys the club full of dancers too cool to leave while the rock combo is playing the Gamera song.)
This is also a film from when Gamera was a bad guy. I never dig the "Gamera, friend to all children" flicks as much, though they are entertaining for entirely different reasons. Of course, being a giant monster movie, we do have a "Kenny"* though he's not terribly annoying. I gotta ask the kid though, if leveling Tokyo doesn't make Gamera a "bad turtle", what does?
The version of the film we have here (and on every other public domain DVD I've found) is the AIP television print. It's panned and scanned and has the hammy added scenes of the UN. The added scenes really slow the picture down and are very heavy handed in their Russia = bad theme. The dubbing (by the same people that did Speed Racer) is good compared to the Sandy Frank version as featured on MST3K and most of the video released in the 80s. The Sandy Frank version is the uncut Japanese version of the film, but the dubbing is terrible.
Anyway, like all the other Treeline discs, Gammera (as it's spelled in the credits) is a mediocre print and it's overly compressed. This film actually has some nice composition, so it's a shame that the blacks look so bad and everything looks soft. Still, from the reviews I've read, I'm not sure there is a DVD much better available without importing.
Final analysis: bad disc of a good film. However, it's cheap and doesn't seem to be that much worse than what else is out there.
Monster from a Prehistoric Planet aka Gappa the Triphibian Monsters - (as seen on Treeline's 50 Horror Classics set.)
This one is an odd one. It's a one off from a studio wanting to get a piece of the giant monster pie and for the life of me, I can't figure out if it's supposed to be a parody of if it is just really cliche. The story goes like this: a magazine publisher wants to make a fake jungle amusement park, so he sends off scientists and a couple reporters (there's always reporters in these films) to an island of Japanese people in black face (I shit you not) to find exotic creatures for the park.
When they get to the island, the natives really like them because they think they made earthquakes stop. Everyone is talking about Gappa, though the crew from Japan has no idea what they're talking about. Long story short, they go into the "forbidden" area (every "primitave" island has one), find a Gappa egg which hatches, they take the baby Gappa back to Tokyo because they think momma and poppa Gappa are dead.
This of course causes the destruction of the island and most of Tokyo as momma and poppa Gappa eventually wake up and come looking for junior. Somehow a "native Kenny" washes up on shore and implores them to return baby to parents. The magazine publisher doesn't want to, of course, and only does so after most of Tokyo is wrecked and the military has used up all it's resources. The female reporter then sets the woman's lib movement back fifty years and the Gappa family flys off into the night.
If the story sounds familiar, it should. I think it was called Konga the first time around. Nothing really new there.
Speaking of new, I don't think I'd seen Japanese people in black face before. Wow. Black face Kenny was a new one on me. Almost worth seeing the movie for the "I just don't believe it" moment and counting the number of times Native Kenny's skin tone changes color.
It's not just the story that's recycled. The Gappa monsters aren't much more than Godzilla with wings. Make that really stiff Godzilla with wings. Watching the Gappa stomp Tokyo is like watching a five year old do the "potty dance" in slow motion on an HO gauge train set. Apparently knees hadn't yet been invented on the prehistoric planet these creatures are from.
The models are pretty weak. There's a shot of a submarine (used twice, reversed the second time actually) that made me howl out loud it was so bad. The buildings look pretty cheesy as well. Even the later Gamera movies had better effects than this.
The print again is an AIP television print that is so dark in places it's hard to tell what is happening. I don't remember things looking too compressed, but the darkness of the print probably hid that a bit. Dubbing isn't as good as Gamera (I think they used a different team to do this one) but it's not too bad. Native Kenny is a little over the top though.
Final analysis: bad movie (but worth seeing), bad disc. There's a much better disc of this out there, if you really need this stinkburger letterboxed and in Japanese with subtitles. (What kind of world do we live in when we have shitty pan & scan Godzilla discs and Gappa letterboxed in Japanese and English!)
*About "Kenny". I think the Gamera series may have pioneered the concept of "Kenny". "Kenny" was always the Japanese boy, he always wore alarmingly short shorts and he became an instant expert on the monster after catching his first glimpse of it. "Kenny" is always allowed full access to scientists and the military who will take his word as gospel as "Kenny" appears to be the monster's best friend. So named because in English the boy lead always seems to be named Kenny.
Alright. I'm going to review a few of the cheepie movies I've seen recently. Keep in mind, I'm writing these after the fact (and at work, don't tell!) and I'm just jotting down thoughts about the films rather than an in depth sort of thing.
Gammera the Invincible - (as seen on Treeline's 50 Sci-Fi Classics)
Y'know, I don't think I realized until I saw these films on MST3K that Gamera wasn't part of the Godzilla storyline. I don't exactly think that's an accident as Gamera is pretty much what happens when your rival is having crazy success with Godzilla and you want a piece of that action.
That said, this first Gamera movie is pretty good, if you like guys in rubber suits stomping Tokyo. Like Godzilla, there's an "atomic energy = bad" subtext here. It's been a while since I've seen the first Godzilla, but there isn't a whole lot I can think of to really separate these movies in my mind (hence my confusion earlier) except Godzilla is a lizard and Gamera is a turtle.
As for Gamera, the monster is pretty cool. The spinning flying thing is an interesting gimmick as well. You can also tell Daiei put some money into this one as the model work is good. (I always chuckle when Gammera destroys the club full of dancers too cool to leave while the rock combo is playing the Gamera song.)
This is also a film from when Gamera was a bad guy. I never dig the "Gamera, friend to all children" flicks as much, though they are entertaining for entirely different reasons. Of course, being a giant monster movie, we do have a "Kenny"* though he's not terribly annoying. I gotta ask the kid though, if leveling Tokyo doesn't make Gamera a "bad turtle", what does?
The version of the film we have here (and on every other public domain DVD I've found) is the AIP television print. It's panned and scanned and has the hammy added scenes of the UN. The added scenes really slow the picture down and are very heavy handed in their Russia = bad theme. The dubbing (by the same people that did Speed Racer) is good compared to the Sandy Frank version as featured on MST3K and most of the video released in the 80s. The Sandy Frank version is the uncut Japanese version of the film, but the dubbing is terrible.
Anyway, like all the other Treeline discs, Gammera (as it's spelled in the credits) is a mediocre print and it's overly compressed. This film actually has some nice composition, so it's a shame that the blacks look so bad and everything looks soft. Still, from the reviews I've read, I'm not sure there is a DVD much better available without importing.
Final analysis: bad disc of a good film. However, it's cheap and doesn't seem to be that much worse than what else is out there.
Monster from a Prehistoric Planet aka Gappa the Triphibian Monsters - (as seen on Treeline's 50 Horror Classics set.)
This one is an odd one. It's a one off from a studio wanting to get a piece of the giant monster pie and for the life of me, I can't figure out if it's supposed to be a parody of if it is just really cliche. The story goes like this: a magazine publisher wants to make a fake jungle amusement park, so he sends off scientists and a couple reporters (there's always reporters in these films) to an island of Japanese people in black face (I shit you not) to find exotic creatures for the park.
When they get to the island, the natives really like them because they think they made earthquakes stop. Everyone is talking about Gappa, though the crew from Japan has no idea what they're talking about. Long story short, they go into the "forbidden" area (every "primitave" island has one), find a Gappa egg which hatches, they take the baby Gappa back to Tokyo because they think momma and poppa Gappa are dead.
This of course causes the destruction of the island and most of Tokyo as momma and poppa Gappa eventually wake up and come looking for junior. Somehow a "native Kenny" washes up on shore and implores them to return baby to parents. The magazine publisher doesn't want to, of course, and only does so after most of Tokyo is wrecked and the military has used up all it's resources. The female reporter then sets the woman's lib movement back fifty years and the Gappa family flys off into the night.
If the story sounds familiar, it should. I think it was called Konga the first time around. Nothing really new there.
Speaking of new, I don't think I'd seen Japanese people in black face before. Wow. Black face Kenny was a new one on me. Almost worth seeing the movie for the "I just don't believe it" moment and counting the number of times Native Kenny's skin tone changes color.
It's not just the story that's recycled. The Gappa monsters aren't much more than Godzilla with wings. Make that really stiff Godzilla with wings. Watching the Gappa stomp Tokyo is like watching a five year old do the "potty dance" in slow motion on an HO gauge train set. Apparently knees hadn't yet been invented on the prehistoric planet these creatures are from.
The models are pretty weak. There's a shot of a submarine (used twice, reversed the second time actually) that made me howl out loud it was so bad. The buildings look pretty cheesy as well. Even the later Gamera movies had better effects than this.
The print again is an AIP television print that is so dark in places it's hard to tell what is happening. I don't remember things looking too compressed, but the darkness of the print probably hid that a bit. Dubbing isn't as good as Gamera (I think they used a different team to do this one) but it's not too bad. Native Kenny is a little over the top though.
Final analysis: bad movie (but worth seeing), bad disc. There's a much better disc of this out there, if you really need this stinkburger letterboxed and in Japanese with subtitles. (What kind of world do we live in when we have shitty pan & scan Godzilla discs and Gappa letterboxed in Japanese and English!)
*About "Kenny". I think the Gamera series may have pioneered the concept of "Kenny". "Kenny" was always the Japanese boy, he always wore alarmingly short shorts and he became an instant expert on the monster after catching his first glimpse of it. "Kenny" is always allowed full access to scientists and the military who will take his word as gospel as "Kenny" appears to be the monster's best friend. So named because in English the boy lead always seems to be named Kenny.
Karate: Hand of Death & the Bruce Lee Ultimate Collection
Note: Another old review post from a blog I used to keep that's going away. Enjoy.
Right now, I'm on kind of a kung fu thing. If you've been following my cheap DVD reports, you'll know that there's simply tons of cheap kung fu discs out there, if you can put aside concerns about original aspect ratio, picture quality and correct language tracks. However, I want to talk for a minute about two regular priced collections that have been on my radar.
First up is the Bruce Lee Ultimate Collection. This set is more or less a port of the region 3 set released a while back. The US version loses Enter the Dragon, due to licensing issues, but Warner has a nice 2 disc set of that out anyway.
The big attraction being the visual quality of the films. The previous region 1 Lee discs presented the fimls non-anamorphic widescreen, which was a revelation in itself, but this set goes even better with 16:9 enhancement and much improved prints. The Big Boss in particular is stunning. I've never seen an early 70s Hong Kong movie look this good.
In addition, you get the original Mandrin dubs of all the films as well as the later Cantonese dub and a 5.1 English mix. These tracks are pretty cool to switch between as there's many differences in the music (I wonder if Pink Floyd and King Crimson even knew they did soundtrack music for Bruce Lee???)
The 5.1 English mixes drive me up the wall though. These movies were originally mono, so to create a surround mix, more Foley has been added on top of the original sfx. To my ears, the new effects on top of the old ones sound horrible and are nothing more than a distraction. Saddly, there's no mono English option on the Chinese films, though we are lucky to have real subtitles and not dub-titles, so you can pick a Chinese language track and subs.
There's also a handfull of extras. Honestly, I haven't gotten to the Game of Death 1/2 discs yet, and that's where the lion's share of the extras are. Speaking of, I find it weird that the producers of this set chose to legitimize Game of Death 2 by including it in a Lee set. Supposedly, it's better than the first (which is really the Plan 9 of martial arts flicks) and the set is still affordable, so I'm not complaining. I just think it's weird.
Aside from the horrible 5.1 English sound, I can't recommend this set highly enough. I wish they still included the documentary Bruce Lee: The Legend, as that was a nice collection of rare footage, but this set is pretty damn good as it stands.
Over to Karate: Hand of Death from Something Weird video. Something Weird is a great company that releases offbeat stuff and crams the discs with plenty of extras. In this case , we start with Karate, which was apparently the first martial arts film released in the states. The movie is presented in widescreen with a pretty good looking b&w picture. There's a weird editing thing in the middle where a short scene appears twice, but considering the obscurity of this film, I'm amazed that's the only real glitch in it.
The movie itself isn't that great. It's more of a melodramatic mystery than an action flick. The fighting, what little there is, is fairly straight forward. That doesn't prevent some real cheezy moments, like when our hero has to regester his hands (of death) with the Japanese government as lethal weapons. It's a bit slow and talky and, though being filmed in Japan with a mostly Japanese cast, isn't above playing up some old stereotypes.
Anyway, the real attraction of this package is "The Incredible Martial Arts Mayhem Kung Fu Trailer Show!" In this instance, the bonus totally overshadows the main feature as what we have here is over 2 hours of vintage trailers for kung fu movies! Nothing but fightings, Engrish and the occasional flash of frontal nudity!
If you are someone who takes your kung fu seriously, you might want to pass, but for the rest of us, this is an awesome collection of all the stuff that makes this genre so enjoyable. Completely awesome stuff, mostly presented in the correct aspect ration to boot! The only downer is Something Weird has added a transparent watermark in the lower right of the screen as they do with a lot of their trailers. It's a lot less obtrusive than what you see on any TV channel, but it is the kind of thing I wish they would note on the packaging. Even so, this disc is just awesome and if you like 70s kung fu, you are going to love it.
Right now, I'm on kind of a kung fu thing. If you've been following my cheap DVD reports, you'll know that there's simply tons of cheap kung fu discs out there, if you can put aside concerns about original aspect ratio, picture quality and correct language tracks. However, I want to talk for a minute about two regular priced collections that have been on my radar.
First up is the Bruce Lee Ultimate Collection. This set is more or less a port of the region 3 set released a while back. The US version loses Enter the Dragon, due to licensing issues, but Warner has a nice 2 disc set of that out anyway.
The big attraction being the visual quality of the films. The previous region 1 Lee discs presented the fimls non-anamorphic widescreen, which was a revelation in itself, but this set goes even better with 16:9 enhancement and much improved prints. The Big Boss in particular is stunning. I've never seen an early 70s Hong Kong movie look this good.
In addition, you get the original Mandrin dubs of all the films as well as the later Cantonese dub and a 5.1 English mix. These tracks are pretty cool to switch between as there's many differences in the music (I wonder if Pink Floyd and King Crimson even knew they did soundtrack music for Bruce Lee???)
The 5.1 English mixes drive me up the wall though. These movies were originally mono, so to create a surround mix, more Foley has been added on top of the original sfx. To my ears, the new effects on top of the old ones sound horrible and are nothing more than a distraction. Saddly, there's no mono English option on the Chinese films, though we are lucky to have real subtitles and not dub-titles, so you can pick a Chinese language track and subs.
There's also a handfull of extras. Honestly, I haven't gotten to the Game of Death 1/2 discs yet, and that's where the lion's share of the extras are. Speaking of, I find it weird that the producers of this set chose to legitimize Game of Death 2 by including it in a Lee set. Supposedly, it's better than the first (which is really the Plan 9 of martial arts flicks) and the set is still affordable, so I'm not complaining. I just think it's weird.
Aside from the horrible 5.1 English sound, I can't recommend this set highly enough. I wish they still included the documentary Bruce Lee: The Legend, as that was a nice collection of rare footage, but this set is pretty damn good as it stands.
Over to Karate: Hand of Death from Something Weird video. Something Weird is a great company that releases offbeat stuff and crams the discs with plenty of extras. In this case , we start with Karate, which was apparently the first martial arts film released in the states. The movie is presented in widescreen with a pretty good looking b&w picture. There's a weird editing thing in the middle where a short scene appears twice, but considering the obscurity of this film, I'm amazed that's the only real glitch in it.
The movie itself isn't that great. It's more of a melodramatic mystery than an action flick. The fighting, what little there is, is fairly straight forward. That doesn't prevent some real cheezy moments, like when our hero has to regester his hands (of death) with the Japanese government as lethal weapons. It's a bit slow and talky and, though being filmed in Japan with a mostly Japanese cast, isn't above playing up some old stereotypes.
Anyway, the real attraction of this package is "The Incredible Martial Arts Mayhem Kung Fu Trailer Show!" In this instance, the bonus totally overshadows the main feature as what we have here is over 2 hours of vintage trailers for kung fu movies! Nothing but fightings, Engrish and the occasional flash of frontal nudity!
If you are someone who takes your kung fu seriously, you might want to pass, but for the rest of us, this is an awesome collection of all the stuff that makes this genre so enjoyable. Completely awesome stuff, mostly presented in the correct aspect ration to boot! The only downer is Something Weird has added a transparent watermark in the lower right of the screen as they do with a lot of their trailers. It's a lot less obtrusive than what you see on any TV channel, but it is the kind of thing I wish they would note on the packaging. Even so, this disc is just awesome and if you like 70s kung fu, you are going to love it.
Cheepnis review: "Masters of Martial Arts" 4 pack
Note: this is an old post from a blog I used to have which is going away soon. Reposting for posterity.
The collection I want to talk about is called "Masters of Martial Arts." It's probably not the best collection to illustrate what I'm talking about, but it's the one I just finished watching. Smile The theme seems to be stars as we have Sonny Chiba, Bolo Yeung and Jimmy Wang Yu represented.
First off the bat, "Street Fighter's Last Revenge" (the cover loses the "last" though.) This is the third in the Street Fighter trilogy and undoubtly the weakest. Far less bloody than the other two, it's also a lot less serious. Rather than being a loose gun for hire, Terry Tsuguri (Chiba's character) attempts to bust up a heist for a recipe for synthetic heroin in a plot that feels more like a standard action film for the time than a martial arts film.
The worst thing I think happened to these movies was they tired to humanize Terry Tsuguri (Chiba's character) and when he lost his edge, so did the series. Really, this film could have been a Shaft sequel with it's busting up a drug ring theme and the amount of time Tsuguri spends in bed. Plus the caucasian in the Marachi getup with the laser belt is way over the top. Still, worth seeing if you like Chiba.
As presented here, "Street Fighter's Last Revenge" is the same letterboxed laserdisc dub everyone else has put out. While it's not exclusive to Brentwood, this film doesn't appear as frequently as the first two, so it's not unwelcome here.
Next up is the Jimmy Wang Yu film "Blood of the Dragon." This is much more what you'd expect from an old school martial arts film. Lots of weapon fighting (Wang Yu fights with a spear) and there's a really good end battle. I liked this movie quite a bit, though there's nothing in it I hadn't seen a million times.
The print quality here is pretty bad though. Pan and scanned and washed out plus there was an authoring hiccup near the end (could possibly be because I was watching on my PC.) I've seen worse, but the film was good enough I wanted to see a better version (seeing the letterboxed trailer on Something Weird's "Karate: Hands of Death" disc only makes me want this more.) Again, this film is avaliable from other companies, but it seems like they are all using the same or similar source.
The second disc in this collection purports to star Bolo Yeung. Well, that's not entirely true. In both films he plays the heavy, but he's not exactly the star. Breathing Fire actually stars Johnathan Ke Quan. Yes, Data from the Goonies is kicking ass and he and Bolo are the only real actors in this thing. "Breathing Fire" feels like a typical late 80s piece of cheese, except it's actually from the early 90s. Oops.
The plot here involves band robbers, Data and his adopted family, a terrible breakdancing scene and some actual fighting with the most wooden martial arts teacher I've ever seen. And there's a fight involving midgets. The fighting is so-so, but if you like bad 80s movies, you'll probably dig this.
Again, pan and scan with a definite VHS quality to it. Audio is strong however though it's slightly out of sync. I can't tell if it's edited or not. IMDB, which can't always be trusted, has this listed as an R rated film, though I can't see anything here that would have earned that rating. I can't see any edits either.
Finally we have Bloodfight, which actually does have Bolo in a stronger role. This movie also rips off Bloodfight quite a bit. I won't go into it a whole lot (my hands are getting tired) other than to say, there's a martial arts tournament, someone dies, some really silly "punks" drive around and the whole thing wreaks of something I would have rented on VHS in Jr. High. Pan and scan and probably sourced from tape, though I've seen worse. The best part is having an almost all Chinese cast (in China) of non-actors speaking English. Dialogue is a little hard to understand.
So, I realize I haven't made too convincing a case, with two 70s classics and two late 80s cheese balls. Well, I picked this up for about $2. For that price, with two movies I'll watch again and two I probably won't, I feel I came out ok.
The collection I want to talk about is called "Masters of Martial Arts." It's probably not the best collection to illustrate what I'm talking about, but it's the one I just finished watching. Smile The theme seems to be stars as we have Sonny Chiba, Bolo Yeung and Jimmy Wang Yu represented.
First off the bat, "Street Fighter's Last Revenge" (the cover loses the "last" though.) This is the third in the Street Fighter trilogy and undoubtly the weakest. Far less bloody than the other two, it's also a lot less serious. Rather than being a loose gun for hire, Terry Tsuguri (Chiba's character) attempts to bust up a heist for a recipe for synthetic heroin in a plot that feels more like a standard action film for the time than a martial arts film.
The worst thing I think happened to these movies was they tired to humanize Terry Tsuguri (Chiba's character) and when he lost his edge, so did the series. Really, this film could have been a Shaft sequel with it's busting up a drug ring theme and the amount of time Tsuguri spends in bed. Plus the caucasian in the Marachi getup with the laser belt is way over the top. Still, worth seeing if you like Chiba.
As presented here, "Street Fighter's Last Revenge" is the same letterboxed laserdisc dub everyone else has put out. While it's not exclusive to Brentwood, this film doesn't appear as frequently as the first two, so it's not unwelcome here.
Next up is the Jimmy Wang Yu film "Blood of the Dragon." This is much more what you'd expect from an old school martial arts film. Lots of weapon fighting (Wang Yu fights with a spear) and there's a really good end battle. I liked this movie quite a bit, though there's nothing in it I hadn't seen a million times.
The print quality here is pretty bad though. Pan and scanned and washed out plus there was an authoring hiccup near the end (could possibly be because I was watching on my PC.) I've seen worse, but the film was good enough I wanted to see a better version (seeing the letterboxed trailer on Something Weird's "Karate: Hands of Death" disc only makes me want this more.) Again, this film is avaliable from other companies, but it seems like they are all using the same or similar source.
The second disc in this collection purports to star Bolo Yeung. Well, that's not entirely true. In both films he plays the heavy, but he's not exactly the star. Breathing Fire actually stars Johnathan Ke Quan. Yes, Data from the Goonies is kicking ass and he and Bolo are the only real actors in this thing. "Breathing Fire" feels like a typical late 80s piece of cheese, except it's actually from the early 90s. Oops.
The plot here involves band robbers, Data and his adopted family, a terrible breakdancing scene and some actual fighting with the most wooden martial arts teacher I've ever seen. And there's a fight involving midgets. The fighting is so-so, but if you like bad 80s movies, you'll probably dig this.
Again, pan and scan with a definite VHS quality to it. Audio is strong however though it's slightly out of sync. I can't tell if it's edited or not. IMDB, which can't always be trusted, has this listed as an R rated film, though I can't see anything here that would have earned that rating. I can't see any edits either.
Finally we have Bloodfight, which actually does have Bolo in a stronger role. This movie also rips off Bloodfight quite a bit. I won't go into it a whole lot (my hands are getting tired) other than to say, there's a martial arts tournament, someone dies, some really silly "punks" drive around and the whole thing wreaks of something I would have rented on VHS in Jr. High. Pan and scan and probably sourced from tape, though I've seen worse. The best part is having an almost all Chinese cast (in China) of non-actors speaking English. Dialogue is a little hard to understand.
So, I realize I haven't made too convincing a case, with two 70s classics and two late 80s cheese balls. Well, I picked this up for about $2. For that price, with two movies I'll watch again and two I probably won't, I feel I came out ok.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
What I did on my summer vacation.
New York City is pretty sweet. I'd go so far as to say it's my third favorite city I've visited. I think I could have easily spent another week (at least) there and still find interesting stuff to get into.
The coolest thing we did on the trip was visiting Louis Armstrong's house. If you don't know, Armstrong bought a house in Queens in the 40s and lived there until his death (in fact, he died there.) His wife lived there until she died in the 80s and the place was restored and opened as a museum a few years ago. I'm not one to get into the whole celebrity worship thing, but this was really cool. Of course, it helps being into music, otherwise I'm sure the trip feels like walking through someone's grandma's house.
The other cool thing we did was caught the awards end of the New York Burlesque Fest. On one hand, this was the only part of the trip where I felt like I'd stumbled into a party I wasn't quite cool enough to attend. On the other, I was watching a burlesque show on a boat going around the island, so I think it evened out.
Normally I hate being in large groups of people, but New York didn't bother me at all, at least not until the Labor Day weekend. See, New York people understand how to move in and as a crowd. They seem to understand you can't walk three abreast on a sidewalk when people are coming the other way and that crossing the street and then stopping right after the curb on the other side to open up a map is a really bad idea.
Another thing I noticed is how unfriendly New York is to anyone with a handicap. This was also something I noticed a lot in Europe. The plus side to that is you don't see a million people too fat to walk riding their Rascals everywhere. In fact, I think I could count the number of "mobility scooters" I saw the entire trip on one hand, and with one exception those looked like tourists. Everyone in New York walks all the time so they don't have the ability to get morbidly obese like we do here in the Midwest.
Let's see, what else rocked? We did a lot of shopping. Rather, window shopping. I got a few things, some Kangols, a few new pairs of kicks, some jeans. (Holy crap, I just realized I went to New York and got excited about clothes shopping.) I picked up some DVDs in Chinatown. We ate at some nice places. Got to see some friends. It was all good.
Those who know me might notice something is missing. It's true, I did NO record shopping on this trip. Absolutely none. The closest I came was killing time in a Virgin Megastore and even then, I was looking more at T-Shirts than music. This is a combination of two things, one of which is the fact that I just have too much stuff as it is, to say nothing on the HUGE pile of Free Zone mail I had waiting on my return.
Secondly though, record shopping just doesn't hold the appeal for me it once did because it's just too easy to hop on-line and find anything you want, usually at a better price than a brick and mortar store, and have it delivered right to your door. Out of the way digging spots (thrifts, junk stores, etc.) are still cool just because of the randomness of what you find and the fact that the prices are usually dirt cheap.
Record stores are good for people who don't know any of those places or don't have time for that or who want to go somewhere and have someone tell them what to listen to. Nothing wrong with any of that. There's also something to be said for actually having your stuff that day and just browsing.
Anyway, that was New York (and then some.)
The coolest thing we did on the trip was visiting Louis Armstrong's house. If you don't know, Armstrong bought a house in Queens in the 40s and lived there until his death (in fact, he died there.) His wife lived there until she died in the 80s and the place was restored and opened as a museum a few years ago. I'm not one to get into the whole celebrity worship thing, but this was really cool. Of course, it helps being into music, otherwise I'm sure the trip feels like walking through someone's grandma's house.
The other cool thing we did was caught the awards end of the New York Burlesque Fest. On one hand, this was the only part of the trip where I felt like I'd stumbled into a party I wasn't quite cool enough to attend. On the other, I was watching a burlesque show on a boat going around the island, so I think it evened out.
Normally I hate being in large groups of people, but New York didn't bother me at all, at least not until the Labor Day weekend. See, New York people understand how to move in and as a crowd. They seem to understand you can't walk three abreast on a sidewalk when people are coming the other way and that crossing the street and then stopping right after the curb on the other side to open up a map is a really bad idea.
Another thing I noticed is how unfriendly New York is to anyone with a handicap. This was also something I noticed a lot in Europe. The plus side to that is you don't see a million people too fat to walk riding their Rascals everywhere. In fact, I think I could count the number of "mobility scooters" I saw the entire trip on one hand, and with one exception those looked like tourists. Everyone in New York walks all the time so they don't have the ability to get morbidly obese like we do here in the Midwest.
Let's see, what else rocked? We did a lot of shopping. Rather, window shopping. I got a few things, some Kangols, a few new pairs of kicks, some jeans. (Holy crap, I just realized I went to New York and got excited about clothes shopping.) I picked up some DVDs in Chinatown. We ate at some nice places. Got to see some friends. It was all good.
Those who know me might notice something is missing. It's true, I did NO record shopping on this trip. Absolutely none. The closest I came was killing time in a Virgin Megastore and even then, I was looking more at T-Shirts than music. This is a combination of two things, one of which is the fact that I just have too much stuff as it is, to say nothing on the HUGE pile of Free Zone mail I had waiting on my return.
Secondly though, record shopping just doesn't hold the appeal for me it once did because it's just too easy to hop on-line and find anything you want, usually at a better price than a brick and mortar store, and have it delivered right to your door. Out of the way digging spots (thrifts, junk stores, etc.) are still cool just because of the randomness of what you find and the fact that the prices are usually dirt cheap.
Record stores are good for people who don't know any of those places or don't have time for that or who want to go somewhere and have someone tell them what to listen to. Nothing wrong with any of that. There's also something to be said for actually having your stuff that day and just browsing.
Anyway, that was New York (and then some.)
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Back from vacation.
Yeah, I forgot to mention it, but I was on vacation for the last week. Good times, stories to tell, etc., etc. Don't really have time to get into all it right now, but let me just say this: the $5 Kurosawa DVDs in Chinatown seem like a good idea at the time, and if you want to watch Rashomon with Simplified Chinese subs or Seven Samurai with Engrish subs, there you go.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Warm?
Did people, as in non-audiophiles, think vinyl "sounds warmer" than CDs before that became the mainstream conventional wisdom? I get tired of people parroting that line like it makes them some kind of golden ears when they probably wouldn't know the difference between warm analog and a wet fart. Yes, some records sound better than some CDs. But, some CDs sound better than some records.
The whole line comes from the early 80, around the dawn of CDs, when one could make a blanket statement like that and be pretty much right. At that time, CDs were often times mastered from tapes many times removed from the masters and 80s digital equipment was could be harsh sounding.
However, things have changed a lot since then. Mastering engineers have gotten better at mastering for CD. Equipment has gotten better and it's become standard practice to find the lowest generation tapes for transfer.
In fact, I would make the argument that there are few companies these days putting out records that sound halfway decent, let alone better than their CD counterparts. Though so many label brag about how many grams of vinyl their pressings are*, it's what's in the groove that counts and too often what's in the groove is clipped, sibilant and thin sounding.
Of course, my favorite part of this whole thing is that term "warm". I can't think of any other word people throw around to sound like they know something but it's actually too vague to mean much of anything. I've heard "warm" used to describe everything from something with too much low end to the old hissy, high end rolled off sound of tape. So is warm over bassy or treble deficient?
If people prefer listening to records, that's cool. I know lots of people do, but it always seems to me it has much more to do with aesthetics than a true honest opinion of sound. Records have a hipster snob appeal nothing digital will ever have. The large artwork is usually more impressive and there's still few things as nifty as colored vinyl or a picture disc.
But I have a really hard time taking someone seriously who is trying to tell me they prefer the "warm" sound of their beat up old records on a crappy plastic turntable with a stylus that has needed changing for fifteen years.
* and heavy pressings are another fine example of audiophile snake oil. Yeah, heavy LPs can sound better, but it's not a guarantee. 200 grams of recycled vinyl is still going to sound like shit any way you slice it.
The whole line comes from the early 80, around the dawn of CDs, when one could make a blanket statement like that and be pretty much right. At that time, CDs were often times mastered from tapes many times removed from the masters and 80s digital equipment was could be harsh sounding.
However, things have changed a lot since then. Mastering engineers have gotten better at mastering for CD. Equipment has gotten better and it's become standard practice to find the lowest generation tapes for transfer.
In fact, I would make the argument that there are few companies these days putting out records that sound halfway decent, let alone better than their CD counterparts. Though so many label brag about how many grams of vinyl their pressings are*, it's what's in the groove that counts and too often what's in the groove is clipped, sibilant and thin sounding.
Of course, my favorite part of this whole thing is that term "warm". I can't think of any other word people throw around to sound like they know something but it's actually too vague to mean much of anything. I've heard "warm" used to describe everything from something with too much low end to the old hissy, high end rolled off sound of tape. So is warm over bassy or treble deficient?
If people prefer listening to records, that's cool. I know lots of people do, but it always seems to me it has much more to do with aesthetics than a true honest opinion of sound. Records have a hipster snob appeal nothing digital will ever have. The large artwork is usually more impressive and there's still few things as nifty as colored vinyl or a picture disc.
But I have a really hard time taking someone seriously who is trying to tell me they prefer the "warm" sound of their beat up old records on a crappy plastic turntable with a stylus that has needed changing for fifteen years.
* and heavy pressings are another fine example of audiophile snake oil. Yeah, heavy LPs can sound better, but it's not a guarantee. 200 grams of recycled vinyl is still going to sound like shit any way you slice it.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
MyTube
I've been on another YouTube posting bender. If you're into stupid commercials from the 80s, I'd recommend you check me out.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
More Drive-In!
This may be my favortie drive-in intermission clock of all. Yeah, it doesn't have the cool 50s flavor, but I really dig the 70s computer/techie style. Plus, all that great Optigan music. I really wish I had a better copy of this. The DVD I ripped this from doesn't look much better.
(BTW, this is the whole almost 10 minute sequence. There's some clips that are clearly older in here, but I left them in because they're fun anyway.)
(BTW, this is the whole almost 10 minute sequence. There's some clips that are clearly older in here, but I left them in because they're fun anyway.)
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
PS2 Shotgun Reviews
The other day I did something I hadn't done in a while. I actually fired up my PlayStation 2. Those who know me know I used to be a bit of a videogame geek. I suppose I still am, to an extent, but my interest is almost entirely in old arcade machines, not anything new.
Still, I'll always check out the bargain bins just to see if anything is out there. I haven't had a chance to play anything though as my wrist problems were making that nearly impossible. Post surgery, I'm actually able to play videogames again, so I decided to see what stuff I'd acquired in the time since.
First off, I had to relearn how to use my damn PS2. See, I went all l33t hax0r on it and got a little too clever for my own good. Part of that is, I run the games off a hard drive now which helps as I was starting to get the dreaded read errors. Plus, I can play imports with no problem, which for me, is something I use a lot.
I started out with Tekken 5. I finally broke down and bought the gigantic Tekken 5 collector's edition (or whatever they're calling it) not because I like Tekken, but because it comes with a rather sturdy arcade stick. Fry's had it marked down to $35, which was a good deal. The stick is still in it's break in period and I hate the fact that the buttons are convex rather than concave. It's also gaudy as all hell. Still, it works pretty well. I don't like it nearly as much as my gigantic controller I built for my supergun. Still, it's a keeper, I think.
I fired up Tekken 5 but didn't end up actually playing the game. See, they ported the arcade Tekken 1-3 as part of the game (and you don't have to unlock them! Thanks Namco!) so I screwed around with those for a while. Tekken 1 just feels to me like a flat imitation of Virtua Fighter. Tekken 3, which I played a lot in an old band, is still kind of a scrub fest. The best thing about the disc so far was Starblade which you can play while the game is loading.
Moving on to Capcom Fighting Evolution, I find the use of the word evolution to be curious as this game is pretty much a cut and paste compilation of older Capcom fighters. I mean, literally, the character sprites were just dumped in from older games. They didn't even use the recently redrawn sprites from any of the Vs. games. Gameplay is pretty much by the numbers as well. It's also a bit dissapointing to have such a small character roster with such notables missing and to have a quarter of the characters present from a game never released in the US (Red Earth.) I'd say pass on this, unless you're a completest.
I also fired up Radirgy Precious, a game I didn't care much for when it first came out on Dreamcast. See, I love shmups and I love the fact that they're still releasing Dreamcast games in Japan. But this game bored me. Pretty to look at, but it's one of a growing trend of shmups where half the stuff on the screen can't hurt you. Boring! I though the PS2 version was supposed to be tweaked somehow, but it's more or less the same thing.
Finally, to end on a positive note, I'm entirely in favor of Sega Ages Vol.25: Treasure Box. I've honked off fanboys in the past by saying Treasure is overrated, and I stand by that claim, but when it came to the Genesis, they were nearly flawless. This volume of the venerable Sega Ages series has three of the four games Treasure developed for the Genny; Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy and Alien Soldier. Gunstar Heroes is probably the best run and gun Contra style game I've ever played (though I think it's a little too easy) and Dynamite Headdy is a severely underrated platformer. Personally, I think Alien Soldier was the exact game where Treasure swerved off the track and became more concerned about huge boss battles (the game is pretty much nothing but boss battles) and gimmick gameplay, but at least one can acquire this for less than what the real Genny cart goes for on eBay. In my situation, I had to appreciate the irony at playing these games on a PS2 perched on top of my Laseractive meaning I could have just as easily played the real deal if I'd wanted.
That's it for now. I have tons of other PlayStation games I haven't cracked open yet. Maybe someday.
Still, I'll always check out the bargain bins just to see if anything is out there. I haven't had a chance to play anything though as my wrist problems were making that nearly impossible. Post surgery, I'm actually able to play videogames again, so I decided to see what stuff I'd acquired in the time since.
First off, I had to relearn how to use my damn PS2. See, I went all l33t hax0r on it and got a little too clever for my own good. Part of that is, I run the games off a hard drive now which helps as I was starting to get the dreaded read errors. Plus, I can play imports with no problem, which for me, is something I use a lot.
I started out with Tekken 5. I finally broke down and bought the gigantic Tekken 5 collector's edition (or whatever they're calling it) not because I like Tekken, but because it comes with a rather sturdy arcade stick. Fry's had it marked down to $35, which was a good deal. The stick is still in it's break in period and I hate the fact that the buttons are convex rather than concave. It's also gaudy as all hell. Still, it works pretty well. I don't like it nearly as much as my gigantic controller I built for my supergun. Still, it's a keeper, I think.
I fired up Tekken 5 but didn't end up actually playing the game. See, they ported the arcade Tekken 1-3 as part of the game (and you don't have to unlock them! Thanks Namco!) so I screwed around with those for a while. Tekken 1 just feels to me like a flat imitation of Virtua Fighter. Tekken 3, which I played a lot in an old band, is still kind of a scrub fest. The best thing about the disc so far was Starblade which you can play while the game is loading.
Moving on to Capcom Fighting Evolution, I find the use of the word evolution to be curious as this game is pretty much a cut and paste compilation of older Capcom fighters. I mean, literally, the character sprites were just dumped in from older games. They didn't even use the recently redrawn sprites from any of the Vs. games. Gameplay is pretty much by the numbers as well. It's also a bit dissapointing to have such a small character roster with such notables missing and to have a quarter of the characters present from a game never released in the US (Red Earth.) I'd say pass on this, unless you're a completest.
I also fired up Radirgy Precious, a game I didn't care much for when it first came out on Dreamcast. See, I love shmups and I love the fact that they're still releasing Dreamcast games in Japan. But this game bored me. Pretty to look at, but it's one of a growing trend of shmups where half the stuff on the screen can't hurt you. Boring! I though the PS2 version was supposed to be tweaked somehow, but it's more or less the same thing.
Finally, to end on a positive note, I'm entirely in favor of Sega Ages Vol.25: Treasure Box. I've honked off fanboys in the past by saying Treasure is overrated, and I stand by that claim, but when it came to the Genesis, they were nearly flawless. This volume of the venerable Sega Ages series has three of the four games Treasure developed for the Genny; Gunstar Heroes, Dynamite Headdy and Alien Soldier. Gunstar Heroes is probably the best run and gun Contra style game I've ever played (though I think it's a little too easy) and Dynamite Headdy is a severely underrated platformer. Personally, I think Alien Soldier was the exact game where Treasure swerved off the track and became more concerned about huge boss battles (the game is pretty much nothing but boss battles) and gimmick gameplay, but at least one can acquire this for less than what the real Genny cart goes for on eBay. In my situation, I had to appreciate the irony at playing these games on a PS2 perched on top of my Laseractive meaning I could have just as easily played the real deal if I'd wanted.
That's it for now. I have tons of other PlayStation games I haven't cracked open yet. Maybe someday.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Call me Mr. Tibbs (Drive-In)
Sometime last week, I bought a bunch of drive-in intermission films on DVD-R. Why? Because I'm a crazy bastard who actually wants to watch 12 hours of crude animation and unappetizing food. Actually, it's another weird nostalgia trip for me as we used to hit the drive-in growing up. I think the most recent film I remember seeing with the family at the drive-in was Ghostbusters II. But, I remember seeing other stuff like Stripes and Star Wars a little farther back than that.
Coincidentally, because I hadn't told her I bought these discs, my fiance suggested we take in a movie over the weekend and let's go to the drive-in. She'd never been. I don't think I've been since the mid-80s when there were actually several drive-ins still operating in Indianapolis. Today, the Tibbs is the only one left.
Tibbs is a four screen drive in showing first run movies. The admission is $9 and the snack bar prices are reasonable. I was a little disappointed they don't have the speaker boxes anymore, but I wasn't terrible surprised. The FM sound is a lot better than I remember drive-in FM radio sound being.
And that brings me to the fact that drive-ins are not for people who would get bent out of shape over not having 5.1 surround and THX optimized screens. Part of the charm of going to the drive-in is the throwback feel to the place.
Of course, the other part is seeing a movie in your car. I can't emphasize enough how sweet that is. I love movies but I hate going to them because I hate people. Plus, it's very difficult for me to not riff on movies. I've been doing it since I was a little kid; it was just something we did to amuse ourselves growing up.
Tibbs is also very appealing to the anti-corporate side of me. It's family owned. You do get bombarded with Scion and cellphone ads in between shows, but the amazing thing is, the films actually start when they are listed as starting. No fifteen minutes of prevues and commercials before the show. Yes, there is the standard ten minute intermission I mentioned above, but that's part of the drive-in experience.
I only wish they had more of the old intermission films showing. :)
So, that's the deal. You can see two films in your car for $9 and the money is going to actual people, not a faceless corporation. You can't beat that, really.
Here's an old InTake article about the drive-ins close by... http://www.intakeweekly.com/articles/1/020854-5421-141.html
BTW, we saw Ricky Bobby. Kristen liked it. I felt it leaned too heavily on very cliche French and gay humor. There were a few scenes worth watching. I think we took in five minutes of Little Man, or whatever the current Wayans brothers travesty is called before deciding to call it a night.
Coincidentally, because I hadn't told her I bought these discs, my fiance suggested we take in a movie over the weekend and let's go to the drive-in. She'd never been. I don't think I've been since the mid-80s when there were actually several drive-ins still operating in Indianapolis. Today, the Tibbs is the only one left.
Tibbs is a four screen drive in showing first run movies. The admission is $9 and the snack bar prices are reasonable. I was a little disappointed they don't have the speaker boxes anymore, but I wasn't terrible surprised. The FM sound is a lot better than I remember drive-in FM radio sound being.
And that brings me to the fact that drive-ins are not for people who would get bent out of shape over not having 5.1 surround and THX optimized screens. Part of the charm of going to the drive-in is the throwback feel to the place.
Of course, the other part is seeing a movie in your car. I can't emphasize enough how sweet that is. I love movies but I hate going to them because I hate people. Plus, it's very difficult for me to not riff on movies. I've been doing it since I was a little kid; it was just something we did to amuse ourselves growing up.
Tibbs is also very appealing to the anti-corporate side of me. It's family owned. You do get bombarded with Scion and cellphone ads in between shows, but the amazing thing is, the films actually start when they are listed as starting. No fifteen minutes of prevues and commercials before the show. Yes, there is the standard ten minute intermission I mentioned above, but that's part of the drive-in experience.
I only wish they had more of the old intermission films showing. :)
So, that's the deal. You can see two films in your car for $9 and the money is going to actual people, not a faceless corporation. You can't beat that, really.
Here's an old InTake article about the drive-ins close by... http://www.intakeweekly.com/articles/1/020854-5421-141.html
BTW, we saw Ricky Bobby. Kristen liked it. I felt it leaned too heavily on very cliche French and gay humor. There were a few scenes worth watching. I think we took in five minutes of Little Man, or whatever the current Wayans brothers travesty is called before deciding to call it a night.
Thursday, August 03, 2006
A recount of the first 15 Minutes of The World of Sid & Marty Krofft at the Hollywood Bowl
Y'know, I have a real high tolerance for TV and movie schlock. In fact, one could almost go so far as to say I'm a bit of a masochist when it comes to video. And I have a real soft spot for the work of Sid & Marty Kroft that defies all logic. But even I have my limit...and apparently that end of the road sign reads...
The "TV G" box would indicate this program is safe for all ages, but I honestly think you'd have a case for child abuse showing this to children. Really I tried here. I got about 15 minutes in and wanted to claw my brain out with a rusty melon scooper.
Not to say TWOS&MKATHB (as I'm going to abbreviate it) didn't have it's moments in those first fifteen minutes:
Right off the bat, the Krofts are hitting us with the hard stuff. Johnny Whitaker from Sigmund and the Sea Monsters lipsynchs an incredibly lame song apparently titled "Friends." At any rate, the word is repeated over and over and over ninety million times. Aside from Whitaker looking like if Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka had a Mini-Me, the highlight of the performance was this epic struggle with the mic stand:
During the song, they do a few crowd shots, presumably to show young Johnny's friends. The obviously overdubbed crowd noise sounds like everyone is having a blast, but let's just see what's really going on.
This exact same clip of this girl shows up about 3 times in the portion of this show I actually watched. What's really funny is, the rest of the show seems to take place in the pitch black night where as she's obviously in the day light.
I think she kind of looks like a baby that just shat itself.
This boy looks serious, like he's planning an escape route.
This little girl is my favorite. She looks like she's about to cry.
Another satisfied customer.
Well, mom looks like she's enjoying it. Daughter looks like she's in pain.
Anyway, shortly after this, Johnny jumps off the stage to shake hands and it's like none of the kids want to touch him. Then a couple of kids woosh down the isle to greet him. It smells like a plant to me.
Here's a pan over the audience they did:
Bored bored bored. And back the other way:
WTF?!? It's MR. BRADY AND ALICE AND I DON'T SEE MRS. BRADY!!!! AND HE'S SLUGGING A BEER!!!!
Call it foreshaowding, because up next it's the Brady Bunch Kids. (It also magically becomes night, but nevermind that.) No lipsynching for the Bradys. Bum notes and uneven mic levels are the order of the day. But I'll give them credit, they gave it their all, espically Bobby, even though they were clearly under-rehearsed and fighting some silly coreography.
The only thing that could make this worse is knowing Greg is singing "Long Tall Sally" here.
Cindy gets thrown around a lot though, and that's a good thing.
Speaking of Cindy, right after this sequence, she screws up a vocal (who could blame her? I'm suprized she didn't barf after having Greg throwing her around...hell, just touching her. I think there was even groin to groin contact there *shudder*) and makes this fantastic "I just fucked up" face that I can't get a decent capture of. There's lots of Bradys giving each other the oops face in their clip. No matter. The canned audience loved it anyway.
The Brady thing goes on waaaay too long. I think they did half the American Graffiti soundtrack in their time slot. Finally, after that, we get some real Kroft stuff. But you know what? I don't even care. Why? IT'S ANOTHER HORRIBLE SONG!
Jack Wild comes out with Sparky from the Bugaloos and various sundry other Kroft characters and sing some song about where's H.R. Pufnstuf. I DON'T CARE ANYMORE. This was the point where I realised I wasn't really watching a Kroft show, I was watching a wretched 70s variety show.
Why was the 70s such a decade for these things? Did people actually watch them? Were the drugs really that good back then?
I watched the first song and I'm going to spare you screencaps. There was nothing redeeming about it except I don't remember Sparky's butt being so bulbous. I watched part of the second song and I had to throw in the towel.
The other thing that killed this for me was that they got ringers for Witchiepoo and Hoo Doo. Not that I ever saw them, I didn't make it that far. But watching the opening credits, they showed clips and it was clearly not Charles Nelson Riley and Billie Hayes reprising their TV roles. I always thought the kids on these shows were horrible but the adults playing villians were awesome. I mean, I forgot these people actually did things other than appear on Match Game '74!
So, there it is. The first fifteen minutes of TWOS&MKATHB. The horror...the horror...
The "TV G" box would indicate this program is safe for all ages, but I honestly think you'd have a case for child abuse showing this to children. Really I tried here. I got about 15 minutes in and wanted to claw my brain out with a rusty melon scooper.
Not to say TWOS&MKATHB (as I'm going to abbreviate it) didn't have it's moments in those first fifteen minutes:
Right off the bat, the Krofts are hitting us with the hard stuff. Johnny Whitaker from Sigmund and the Sea Monsters lipsynchs an incredibly lame song apparently titled "Friends." At any rate, the word is repeated over and over and over ninety million times. Aside from Whitaker looking like if Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka had a Mini-Me, the highlight of the performance was this epic struggle with the mic stand:
During the song, they do a few crowd shots, presumably to show young Johnny's friends. The obviously overdubbed crowd noise sounds like everyone is having a blast, but let's just see what's really going on.
This exact same clip of this girl shows up about 3 times in the portion of this show I actually watched. What's really funny is, the rest of the show seems to take place in the pitch black night where as she's obviously in the day light.
I think she kind of looks like a baby that just shat itself.
This boy looks serious, like he's planning an escape route.
This little girl is my favorite. She looks like she's about to cry.
Another satisfied customer.
Well, mom looks like she's enjoying it. Daughter looks like she's in pain.
Anyway, shortly after this, Johnny jumps off the stage to shake hands and it's like none of the kids want to touch him. Then a couple of kids woosh down the isle to greet him. It smells like a plant to me.
Here's a pan over the audience they did:
Bored bored bored. And back the other way:
WTF?!? It's MR. BRADY AND ALICE AND I DON'T SEE MRS. BRADY!!!! AND HE'S SLUGGING A BEER!!!!
Call it foreshaowding, because up next it's the Brady Bunch Kids. (It also magically becomes night, but nevermind that.) No lipsynching for the Bradys. Bum notes and uneven mic levels are the order of the day. But I'll give them credit, they gave it their all, espically Bobby, even though they were clearly under-rehearsed and fighting some silly coreography.
The only thing that could make this worse is knowing Greg is singing "Long Tall Sally" here.
Cindy gets thrown around a lot though, and that's a good thing.
Speaking of Cindy, right after this sequence, she screws up a vocal (who could blame her? I'm suprized she didn't barf after having Greg throwing her around...hell, just touching her. I think there was even groin to groin contact there *shudder*) and makes this fantastic "I just fucked up" face that I can't get a decent capture of. There's lots of Bradys giving each other the oops face in their clip. No matter. The canned audience loved it anyway.
The Brady thing goes on waaaay too long. I think they did half the American Graffiti soundtrack in their time slot. Finally, after that, we get some real Kroft stuff. But you know what? I don't even care. Why? IT'S ANOTHER HORRIBLE SONG!
Jack Wild comes out with Sparky from the Bugaloos and various sundry other Kroft characters and sing some song about where's H.R. Pufnstuf. I DON'T CARE ANYMORE. This was the point where I realised I wasn't really watching a Kroft show, I was watching a wretched 70s variety show.
Why was the 70s such a decade for these things? Did people actually watch them? Were the drugs really that good back then?
I watched the first song and I'm going to spare you screencaps. There was nothing redeeming about it except I don't remember Sparky's butt being so bulbous. I watched part of the second song and I had to throw in the towel.
The other thing that killed this for me was that they got ringers for Witchiepoo and Hoo Doo. Not that I ever saw them, I didn't make it that far. But watching the opening credits, they showed clips and it was clearly not Charles Nelson Riley and Billie Hayes reprising their TV roles. I always thought the kids on these shows were horrible but the adults playing villians were awesome. I mean, I forgot these people actually did things other than appear on Match Game '74!
So, there it is. The first fifteen minutes of TWOS&MKATHB. The horror...the horror...
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Bow down before greatness.
Apparently I am an electronic music pioneer and didn't even know it. Or so says the "Encyclopedia FunTrivia".
According to them, I wrote the Moog novelty tune Popcorn. Here's the page but for those of you who don't feel like scrolling through that ugly mess, here's a screencap of the money quote:
Now, you may be asking, how do I know they mean me specifically? I know there are millions of Rob Guernseys out there. Trust me, I get confused with the others all the time.
Well, here's the deal. Once upon a time, when the internet was new and all web pages looked like your average MySpace page, I had a web site where I was documenting oddball records I'd bought at thrift stores (sound familiar?) The site, which moved from Anglefire to IUPUI, is long gone and I never bothered to get it hosted elsewhere. This of course means the virtual world is without information on such classics as "Accutrack 2000 Demonstration Record" and "Lonnie Don Talks to Teens."
I still find pieces of it here and there, even though it hasn't been archived. For instance, one of the soul/funk sites ganked my pictures of the Sy Mann and the Brothers version of "Shaft." (I ain't mad at 'em.) But the one thing, other than the aforementioned Accutrack demo record, that keeps coming back is this damn Hot Butter album I wrote about.
At the time (mid 90s) no one else was covering any of this stuff on-line. So, the simple act of throwing up a page about something made you an Internet expert on whatever the subject was.
What happened was, the record in question was a fairly popular novelty tune and I wrote about it. Someone wrote me asking about it. You can still see an archived version of his site here but you're going to have to highlight to actually read it. Because of that guy, I was the expert on that record for a few years.
Where that Encyclopedia FunTrivia site above got the idea that I wrote the song, that's anyone's guess. However, I'm pretty sure they got their info from that guy I liked to above as their little blurb reads like a sloppy cut and paste version of his summary of my page. Because that page is the only place my name is linked with that song, I'm certain that's what's happened.
All I can say is "where my royalties bitches?"
I'm also wondering how I managed to write a song released three years before I was born and penned three years prior to that? Damn I'm good.
Oh, and if you don't know the song, here's a corny MIDI file to annoy your loved ones with.
PS- Big respect to Gershon Kingsley, the man who actually wrote "Popcorn".
According to them, I wrote the Moog novelty tune Popcorn. Here's the page but for those of you who don't feel like scrolling through that ugly mess, here's a screencap of the money quote:
Now, you may be asking, how do I know they mean me specifically? I know there are millions of Rob Guernseys out there. Trust me, I get confused with the others all the time.
Well, here's the deal. Once upon a time, when the internet was new and all web pages looked like your average MySpace page, I had a web site where I was documenting oddball records I'd bought at thrift stores (sound familiar?) The site, which moved from Anglefire to IUPUI, is long gone and I never bothered to get it hosted elsewhere. This of course means the virtual world is without information on such classics as "Accutrack 2000 Demonstration Record" and "Lonnie Don Talks to Teens."
I still find pieces of it here and there, even though it hasn't been archived. For instance, one of the soul/funk sites ganked my pictures of the Sy Mann and the Brothers version of "Shaft." (I ain't mad at 'em.) But the one thing, other than the aforementioned Accutrack demo record, that keeps coming back is this damn Hot Butter album I wrote about.
At the time (mid 90s) no one else was covering any of this stuff on-line. So, the simple act of throwing up a page about something made you an Internet expert on whatever the subject was.
What happened was, the record in question was a fairly popular novelty tune and I wrote about it. Someone wrote me asking about it. You can still see an archived version of his site here but you're going to have to highlight to actually read it. Because of that guy, I was the expert on that record for a few years.
Where that Encyclopedia FunTrivia site above got the idea that I wrote the song, that's anyone's guess. However, I'm pretty sure they got their info from that guy I liked to above as their little blurb reads like a sloppy cut and paste version of his summary of my page. Because that page is the only place my name is linked with that song, I'm certain that's what's happened.
All I can say is "where my royalties bitches?"
I'm also wondering how I managed to write a song released three years before I was born and penned three years prior to that? Damn I'm good.
Oh, and if you don't know the song, here's a corny MIDI file to annoy your loved ones with.
PS- Big respect to Gershon Kingsley, the man who actually wrote "Popcorn".
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Where's Robo?
I suppose I've hit that middle slump everyone who starts a blog must hit. That is, after an initial flurry of posts, posting slows to a trickle, when the blogger can be bothered to post at all. This is usually followed by abandonment of blog which then usually becomes overrun with comments like this:
"hi i really like your post on this subject it is informative an d well thought out. for the best in hot teen online poker please go to..."
I actually have a legit excuse or five. Well, I think they are legit anyway. So, here goes:
First off, my apartement is almost unliveable. It's hot as satan's ass in there and it looks like the inside of a thirft store (see any of my previous "thrift score" posts for possible reasons why, at least for the second part.) So, I'm in the middle of purging stuff like a squad of cheerleaders the day before prom.
Right now, most of my living room looks like a loading dock. There's stuff packed up waiting for payment, there's packing material stacked up all around, there's stuff waiting to go back to the thrifts, etc., etc., etc. A lot of my spare time is being spent on eBay when I'm not sorting through stuff, trying to decide what to keep and what to lose.
I also decided, since I'm going through all this junk anyway, now would be a good time to catalog everything. I sprung for some software which is making life a lot better. Still, it's not an entirely easy process and it's pretty damn time consuming.
In the process of doing this, I realize I've either lent out or lost my favorite Miles Davis CD; a Japanese import with is going to set me back $50+ to replace. I am not happy about that one bit. However, I'm suprized that's all that's come up missing. Somehow, I've managed to keep all this stuff straight in my head for years. I have no idea how that one got away.
The records are going to be a real bitch to catalog. Everything else I can scan the barcode, which for about 65-70% of my CDs covers it. Most of my records are pre-UPC and that project is going to involve a lot of manual entry. Anyone wanna be my intern?
Where was I?
OK, there's all that and I'm spending most of my evenings eBaying stuff or scanning barcodes, sitting in my drawers, sweating my balls off. If I'd been blogging the past few weeks, pretty much every entry would read just like that.
Other than that, things have been ok. Really, I just haven't had much to say. I told you all about the Free Zone changeover, I mentioned Svetlana's show (we got blown off the stage, btw,) and I haven't been thrifting much lately as I'm trying to get stuff out. Umm...really that's about it. Hope you all have been well and in a few weeks I plan to be back on track and have some more interesting things to say.
"hi i really like your post on this subject it is informative an d well thought out. for the best in hot teen online poker please go to..."
I actually have a legit excuse or five. Well, I think they are legit anyway. So, here goes:
First off, my apartement is almost unliveable. It's hot as satan's ass in there and it looks like the inside of a thirft store (see any of my previous "thrift score" posts for possible reasons why, at least for the second part.) So, I'm in the middle of purging stuff like a squad of cheerleaders the day before prom.
Right now, most of my living room looks like a loading dock. There's stuff packed up waiting for payment, there's packing material stacked up all around, there's stuff waiting to go back to the thrifts, etc., etc., etc. A lot of my spare time is being spent on eBay when I'm not sorting through stuff, trying to decide what to keep and what to lose.
I also decided, since I'm going through all this junk anyway, now would be a good time to catalog everything. I sprung for some software which is making life a lot better. Still, it's not an entirely easy process and it's pretty damn time consuming.
In the process of doing this, I realize I've either lent out or lost my favorite Miles Davis CD; a Japanese import with is going to set me back $50+ to replace. I am not happy about that one bit. However, I'm suprized that's all that's come up missing. Somehow, I've managed to keep all this stuff straight in my head for years. I have no idea how that one got away.
The records are going to be a real bitch to catalog. Everything else I can scan the barcode, which for about 65-70% of my CDs covers it. Most of my records are pre-UPC and that project is going to involve a lot of manual entry. Anyone wanna be my intern?
Where was I?
OK, there's all that and I'm spending most of my evenings eBaying stuff or scanning barcodes, sitting in my drawers, sweating my balls off. If I'd been blogging the past few weeks, pretty much every entry would read just like that.
Other than that, things have been ok. Really, I just haven't had much to say. I told you all about the Free Zone changeover, I mentioned Svetlana's show (we got blown off the stage, btw,) and I haven't been thrifting much lately as I'm trying to get stuff out. Umm...really that's about it. Hope you all have been well and in a few weeks I plan to be back on track and have some more interesting things to say.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Free Zone News
Alright, a lot of stuff is changing on the old Free Zone, so listen up. There will be a quiz, so take notes.
First off, the time and place are still the same. That's 88.7 FM and Friday and Saturday, midnight to 3AM, in case you forgot. As the core, the show is going to stay the same mix of all over the map music (underground rock, hip hop, funk, reggae, electronic, avant, etc., etc.) and random ramblings as it always was.
The biggest change is in the hosts. As you may or may not know, Chandler is leaving for New York in a few weeks. I'm pleased to announce that Tim D. is returning to the show. Tim was one of the guys who started the show in the first place and is an all around great guy with excellent musical tastes. He's going to head up Saturday nights, I'll be your captain Friday.
Tim's going to bring his own flavor to Saturday nights (kind of gamey, with a hint of patchouli) and from talking to him, he's told me he wants to put more of a local spin on Saturdays. The idea is to get more quality Indy bands on the radio, and I think that's a good thing.
So, in the coming weeks, Tim will probably be asking for music from local bands. Sending something in is no guarantee it's going to get played, but over the years Tim has shown himself to be a big supporter of local music and the kind of person to give everyone a fair listen. Just a heads up, don't start flooding us with CDs now, but know the call is coming.
I had a lot of people email me about when we were going to have bands playing live on the show again. At this point, I still have to say I don't know. The problem is, we have new digs and the new air studio is smaller than the old one. There is going to be a production studio large enough to comfortably hold a band, but it's still being built. Everyone involved would like to start doing the live from the Free Zone sessions again, but at the moment, we can't. We may be able to do some location recordings, but that's an idea Tim and I have to kick around a bit.
Also, about the web site. Yeah, it hasn't been updated since January basically because both Chandler and I have been too dang busy to do it. I still keep play lists, so if you really have to know what was played on a certain night, email me and hopefully I can help you out. I have a plan to make website updates a more regular and less painful thing. Hopefully this will be implemented soon.
OK, I think that covers everything. Tonight, tune in and hear me, Chandler and Tim D., together again for the last time in a while. (I think this is going to be Chandler's last show until he comes back to visit.) The next couple of weeks are going to be transition, but hopefully when the dust clears, the show is just going to keep getting better and better.
Thanks for your patience and continued listenership.
Rob G.
First off, the time and place are still the same. That's 88.7 FM and Friday and Saturday, midnight to 3AM, in case you forgot. As the core, the show is going to stay the same mix of all over the map music (underground rock, hip hop, funk, reggae, electronic, avant, etc., etc.) and random ramblings as it always was.
The biggest change is in the hosts. As you may or may not know, Chandler is leaving for New York in a few weeks. I'm pleased to announce that Tim D. is returning to the show. Tim was one of the guys who started the show in the first place and is an all around great guy with excellent musical tastes. He's going to head up Saturday nights, I'll be your captain Friday.
Tim's going to bring his own flavor to Saturday nights (kind of gamey, with a hint of patchouli) and from talking to him, he's told me he wants to put more of a local spin on Saturdays. The idea is to get more quality Indy bands on the radio, and I think that's a good thing.
So, in the coming weeks, Tim will probably be asking for music from local bands. Sending something in is no guarantee it's going to get played, but over the years Tim has shown himself to be a big supporter of local music and the kind of person to give everyone a fair listen. Just a heads up, don't start flooding us with CDs now, but know the call is coming.
I had a lot of people email me about when we were going to have bands playing live on the show again. At this point, I still have to say I don't know. The problem is, we have new digs and the new air studio is smaller than the old one. There is going to be a production studio large enough to comfortably hold a band, but it's still being built. Everyone involved would like to start doing the live from the Free Zone sessions again, but at the moment, we can't. We may be able to do some location recordings, but that's an idea Tim and I have to kick around a bit.
Also, about the web site. Yeah, it hasn't been updated since January basically because both Chandler and I have been too dang busy to do it. I still keep play lists, so if you really have to know what was played on a certain night, email me and hopefully I can help you out. I have a plan to make website updates a more regular and less painful thing. Hopefully this will be implemented soon.
OK, I think that covers everything. Tonight, tune in and hear me, Chandler and Tim D., together again for the last time in a while. (I think this is going to be Chandler's last show until he comes back to visit.) The next couple of weeks are going to be transition, but hopefully when the dust clears, the show is just going to keep getting better and better.
Thanks for your patience and continued listenership.
Rob G.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Tales from the Tech Dept. No. 95,283
When you come down to ask the tech guy to do something for you that isn't work related, you really should let him finish his sentence. When he says "we really aren't supposed to do that" it could be a bit of CYA and he might have been getting ready to say "but, I'll come down and take a look anyway" until you got attitudinal and cut him off.
PS- good luck getting "the other guy" who you claim has always done this stuff for you to help you out now.
PS- good luck getting "the other guy" who you claim has always done this stuff for you to help you out now.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Review: This Stuff'll Kill Ya!/Year of the Yahoo!
I've been on a Herschell Gordon Lewis bender lately. So here's another disc from Something Weird Video, this time a double feature of two HGL films from 1971/72 long thought to be lost. These two flicks reflect Lewis' back woods obsession, with lots of country music and not so much gore.
First up is This Stuff'll Kill Ya! Jeffrey Allen plays Roscoe Boone, a Foghorn Leghorn type preacher who's church is actually a front for a moonshine operation. There's debauchery and mayhem and several people are killed in a biblical manner as Boone and his congregation attempt to outrun the law. Stonings, crucifixions and country hoe-downs. Yee hah!
Unfortunately, the film isn't nearly as interesting as my description. Most of the scenes run much longer than they need to. Allen is appropriately over the top as Boone, but by the end of the movie, you just want him to shut up. The gore sequences, while tame for an HGL film, seem really out of place and slow the movie down even further.
The most interesting angle of this story, how someone can find a bible quote to justify anything, isn't even touched on, and the whole time I was left wondering just why the things I was seeing were happening. I never could get a grasp on if Boone was supposed to be a con-man or if he actually believed what he was saying.
Next is Year of the Yahoo! This film has a bit of a legend behind it, as HGL himself lamented it's disappearance for years. It's also of note as it seems like HGL was almost trying to make a more serious movie with this one. (Well, more serious compared to his past work, anyway.)
Here we have Hank Jackson (played by minor country music star Claude King) who is chosen by a group of political insiders to run for Senate based on his TV appearances. It's interesting in that it looks like Lewis is actually trying to make a message picture here as we watch Jackson's campaign turned into a continuous all image, no substance television commercial complete with playing up wedge issues and picking on minorities and the poor.
This film is so close to being really good that it was almost frustrating to watch. Claude King and HGL stock player Ray Sager are both really good in their roles. The story is interesting and actually works (not to mention the central theme of media created politicians playing to redneck fears and prejudices is equally relevant today.)
While it fares much better than Stuff, it shares many of Stuff's faults. Mainly that most of the scenes run too long and the story gets a bit cloudy at times. Plus, there is a really long and completely gratuitous sex scene about 3/4 of the way through that slams the movie to a halt. I guess it's the exploiter in Herschell coming through.
Something Weird's presentation of these two films is as good as one can expect. Both prints (which apparently are the only ones in existence) are worn, with scratches, fading colors and emulsion lines, but, I actually kind of enjoy seeing movies like these in less than perfect prints. There's the usually assortment of HGL trailers and a few random clips as bonus and the same HGL Exploitation Art Gallery Something Weird has included on all their HGL DVDs.
The biggest disappointment is no commentary track from the man himself. Herschell's tracks on the other films are always entertaining to listen to and considering he mentioned Year of the Yahoo! so many times in them, you'd think they could have gotten him on board to talk about it. In his place, Daniel Krogh, who was a long time associate and wrote the first book about Lewis, fills in. While Krogh has tons of trivia, he falls into a trap a lot of DVD commentators do of just describing what is on the screen, talking continuously and not coming up for air.
For fans of Herschell Gordon Lewis, this is a no brainer. If you've never seen an HGL film before, I'll be honest, this isn't a good place to start. In fact, I'd recommend this double feature is probably best left to the HGL fanatics. Still, Something Weird is to be commended for bringing these two lost films out, even if they are a bit of a disappointment.
First up is This Stuff'll Kill Ya! Jeffrey Allen plays Roscoe Boone, a Foghorn Leghorn type preacher who's church is actually a front for a moonshine operation. There's debauchery and mayhem and several people are killed in a biblical manner as Boone and his congregation attempt to outrun the law. Stonings, crucifixions and country hoe-downs. Yee hah!
Unfortunately, the film isn't nearly as interesting as my description. Most of the scenes run much longer than they need to. Allen is appropriately over the top as Boone, but by the end of the movie, you just want him to shut up. The gore sequences, while tame for an HGL film, seem really out of place and slow the movie down even further.
The most interesting angle of this story, how someone can find a bible quote to justify anything, isn't even touched on, and the whole time I was left wondering just why the things I was seeing were happening. I never could get a grasp on if Boone was supposed to be a con-man or if he actually believed what he was saying.
Next is Year of the Yahoo! This film has a bit of a legend behind it, as HGL himself lamented it's disappearance for years. It's also of note as it seems like HGL was almost trying to make a more serious movie with this one. (Well, more serious compared to his past work, anyway.)
Here we have Hank Jackson (played by minor country music star Claude King) who is chosen by a group of political insiders to run for Senate based on his TV appearances. It's interesting in that it looks like Lewis is actually trying to make a message picture here as we watch Jackson's campaign turned into a continuous all image, no substance television commercial complete with playing up wedge issues and picking on minorities and the poor.
This film is so close to being really good that it was almost frustrating to watch. Claude King and HGL stock player Ray Sager are both really good in their roles. The story is interesting and actually works (not to mention the central theme of media created politicians playing to redneck fears and prejudices is equally relevant today.)
While it fares much better than Stuff, it shares many of Stuff's faults. Mainly that most of the scenes run too long and the story gets a bit cloudy at times. Plus, there is a really long and completely gratuitous sex scene about 3/4 of the way through that slams the movie to a halt. I guess it's the exploiter in Herschell coming through.
Something Weird's presentation of these two films is as good as one can expect. Both prints (which apparently are the only ones in existence) are worn, with scratches, fading colors and emulsion lines, but, I actually kind of enjoy seeing movies like these in less than perfect prints. There's the usually assortment of HGL trailers and a few random clips as bonus and the same HGL Exploitation Art Gallery Something Weird has included on all their HGL DVDs.
The biggest disappointment is no commentary track from the man himself. Herschell's tracks on the other films are always entertaining to listen to and considering he mentioned Year of the Yahoo! so many times in them, you'd think they could have gotten him on board to talk about it. In his place, Daniel Krogh, who was a long time associate and wrote the first book about Lewis, fills in. While Krogh has tons of trivia, he falls into a trap a lot of DVD commentators do of just describing what is on the screen, talking continuously and not coming up for air.
For fans of Herschell Gordon Lewis, this is a no brainer. If you've never seen an HGL film before, I'll be honest, this isn't a good place to start. In fact, I'd recommend this double feature is probably best left to the HGL fanatics. Still, Something Weird is to be commended for bringing these two lost films out, even if they are a bit of a disappointment.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Show this Saturday.
This all came together kind of last minute. Please come out and support us and the other bands coming in from out of state.
Shine your shoes and prepare for a night of Tetley's and noisy guitars....
A Mythopeic Production:
JohnnyTwentyThree (Ohio): Instrumental, ambient, dreamy with a full-on visual assault
MP3
The Graboids (Virginia): Instrumental ala Mogwai
MP3
Svetlana (Indy): Chromosomes and effects
MP3
9:00 @ Radio Radio
$3
New blog for you to watch and learn.
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Monday, July 17, 2006
Killdozer, I had your number.
I'm sad to say, I was completely right guessing Killdozer wasn't going to live up to what I'd made it to be in my head.
I mean, don't get me wrong. It was worth a watch, I guess. There were many scenes my men running from a HUGE bulldozer with no one driving it. That was kind of funny. The menacing headlights were always a chuckle.
Mostly though, what interested me most about Killdozer, or my copy of it anyway, was how poor television used to look. To be fair, I have no idea what the lineage of my DVD-R is, but it clearly starts with a broadcast on a CBS station as their legal ID pops up on screen about 2/3 the way through. Since the show originally broadcast on ABC, it's a rebroadcast.
It's also obviously from back in the day when TV stations still ran shows off 16mm film (or they were running a tape telecined from a 16mm print.) There's two reels with some serious hair in the frame problems. (One late reel looks like a fricking tribble is climbing up the side of the screen for the entire reel.) And that's not even mentioning how worn out the print looks to begin with. Scratches, cuts and washed out colors.
Anyway, so Killdozer. Yeah. I'd say stick with the band of the same name if you want maximum entertainment.
I mean, don't get me wrong. It was worth a watch, I guess. There were many scenes my men running from a HUGE bulldozer with no one driving it. That was kind of funny. The menacing headlights were always a chuckle.
Mostly though, what interested me most about Killdozer, or my copy of it anyway, was how poor television used to look. To be fair, I have no idea what the lineage of my DVD-R is, but it clearly starts with a broadcast on a CBS station as their legal ID pops up on screen about 2/3 the way through. Since the show originally broadcast on ABC, it's a rebroadcast.
It's also obviously from back in the day when TV stations still ran shows off 16mm film (or they were running a tape telecined from a 16mm print.) There's two reels with some serious hair in the frame problems. (One late reel looks like a fricking tribble is climbing up the side of the screen for the entire reel.) And that's not even mentioning how worn out the print looks to begin with. Scratches, cuts and washed out colors.
Anyway, so Killdozer. Yeah. I'd say stick with the band of the same name if you want maximum entertainment.
Friday, July 14, 2006
CED - It's the 8-track of video!
(pictures shamelessly stolen from eBay auction)
So, that's my new toy. As I've gotten older, I realized I can now buy all the cool junk I wanted when I was younger. Mostly that's meant I've owned nearly every videogame system ever, but I have gotten into the A/V equipment as well. So, along with my quadraphonic system, reel to reel and 8-track recorders, I now I own a CED player.
The specific model I have, as seen above, is a SJT 200, which was kind of a middle of the road model. Yeah, that's my actual player in the pictures. It belonged to a former RCA executive and was serviced before I got it by an ex-RCA technician. I paid a pretty penny for it, but it's about as close to brand new as I'm going to get at this point in time (plus it was local, so I dodged the shipping bullet.)
What, you may ask, in the hell is CED? Well, it was an early video playback system that used a 12" disc (encased in an oversized plastic caddy) and was read by a stylus. In other words, it's a record that plays movies. The difference being, the groove is extremely fine and the stylus are no longer being made (though they are still available as new old stock.)
What CED isn't is laserdisc. People commonly confuse the two, but there's no laser involved here. It's just a needle in a groove, exactly like a audio record, though the actual nuts and bolts of it is a bit more complicated.
Quality wise, when everything works properly, it's better than VHS but not nearly laserdisc. Since there is a stylus in the groove, dust and scratches can play havoc with a CED disc. The plastic caddies seem to do a good job protecting them, but I've had skipping in all my discs I've played so far at least on the first play. Usually on the second pass, it plays clean.
Development on CED started in the early 70s, but it was manufactured from 1981-1984. Disc production continued until 1986. My player is from 1983 and is part of the second, and final, generation of RCA players.
My personal feeling about the format is, had it come out in the late 70s, it would have been a much bigger success than it was. The discs weren't that expensive, especially compared to what pre-recorded videotapes sold for at the time. The problem was, by the time CED made it to market in 1981, the videocassette rental market was starting to pick up and VCRs were starting to drop in price. Laserdiscs, while never becoming more than a niche item in the States, also had a 3 year jump on CED.
Growing up in Indianapolis, where RCA used to be headquartered and where CED discs were made, I saw these things everywhere. I knew several people who worked for RCA growing up and they had CED players. I still find the discs at thrift stores quite often, which is what got me started on collecting these discs in the first place.
Nostalgia and avaliability are two things that got me interested in this. There's also several movies not avaliable on DVD that you can find on CED, and usually for cheap. (The paradox of CED collecting being, the discs are nearly worthless while working players are worth their weight in gold.) I'm also fascinated with quirky old technology, of which the CED system certaintly qualifies.
So that's CED. I'd point anyone interested in more info to CED Magic. It's a pretty thorough site about the format.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Not a thrift post...
I really didn't want to get up this morning. First off, I've been sleeping like crap, well, assuming a pile of feces can be said to sleep. Second off, between going to work and staying in bed, I'll chose staying in bed every time. On top of that, I was having a pretty kick ass dream. See, I was close friends with Jay-Z and we were about to start a band. Now I'll have to live the rest of my life wondering if it sounded like that thing he did with Linkin Park or not. (Man, I hope not.)
Anyway, my mornings are infinitely complicated given I go to the gym first thing in the morning and then go straight to work. Not only does that mean I have to get up earlier, but I also have to essentially pack a bag before I head to work. I try to do this is the evening, as I'm much less likely to forget things. So far, I've forgotten my belt, shorts, phone (two or three times) and today it was socks.
However, I never forget my iPod Shuffle. It lives in my gym bag, so it's kind of hard to forget. It's not like I take it out to wash it or anything and I really don't use it when I'm not exercising, so it's not like I ever need it for anything other than at the gym or recharging/refilling with music.
Lately my Shuffle has been acting weird. It's still playing music and all that, but it's not shuffling. It started a few weeks ago when I noticed the same songs coming up. Usually with 1 GB of tunes on the thing, I don't hear everything on it by the time it needs recharged. But I started noticing it was stuck on certain songs.
This morning I heard the exact sequence of songs I heard yesterday. We're talking like 6 or 8 songs in a row exactly the same. I know I'm not imagining things. One doesn't forget a playlist jumping from Glen Campbell to Godflesh to KC and the Sunshine Band, especially not first thing in the morning two mornings in a row.
This means one of several things. I may be crazy. This is an option I've been considering for a while and I haven't totally ruled it out. I may be trapped in a Groundhog Day like scenario. I think I can rule that out as you shouldn't recognize a situation like that one the second day and my complexion is much better than Billy Murray's.
Really, I think it's the iPod. If I was a conspiracy freak, I'd suggest these things have a timer which goes off about the time Apple brings out the next generation so you're encouraged to buy the newer one. Well, screw you Steve Jobs! I'm still using a 2G 20GB iPod and I'll stick with my non-shuffling Shuffle until it ceases to work, thankyouverymuch.
Anyway, that's really all I got for now. Life has been kicking me square in the ass and I'm trying to catch up. It's not really bad, it's just exhausting. I need a vacation. That is all.
Anyway, my mornings are infinitely complicated given I go to the gym first thing in the morning and then go straight to work. Not only does that mean I have to get up earlier, but I also have to essentially pack a bag before I head to work. I try to do this is the evening, as I'm much less likely to forget things. So far, I've forgotten my belt, shorts, phone (two or three times) and today it was socks.
However, I never forget my iPod Shuffle. It lives in my gym bag, so it's kind of hard to forget. It's not like I take it out to wash it or anything and I really don't use it when I'm not exercising, so it's not like I ever need it for anything other than at the gym or recharging/refilling with music.
Lately my Shuffle has been acting weird. It's still playing music and all that, but it's not shuffling. It started a few weeks ago when I noticed the same songs coming up. Usually with 1 GB of tunes on the thing, I don't hear everything on it by the time it needs recharged. But I started noticing it was stuck on certain songs.
This morning I heard the exact sequence of songs I heard yesterday. We're talking like 6 or 8 songs in a row exactly the same. I know I'm not imagining things. One doesn't forget a playlist jumping from Glen Campbell to Godflesh to KC and the Sunshine Band, especially not first thing in the morning two mornings in a row.
This means one of several things. I may be crazy. This is an option I've been considering for a while and I haven't totally ruled it out. I may be trapped in a Groundhog Day like scenario. I think I can rule that out as you shouldn't recognize a situation like that one the second day and my complexion is much better than Billy Murray's.
Really, I think it's the iPod. If I was a conspiracy freak, I'd suggest these things have a timer which goes off about the time Apple brings out the next generation so you're encouraged to buy the newer one. Well, screw you Steve Jobs! I'm still using a 2G 20GB iPod and I'll stick with my non-shuffling Shuffle until it ceases to work, thankyouverymuch.
Anyway, that's really all I got for now. Life has been kicking me square in the ass and I'm trying to catch up. It's not really bad, it's just exhausting. I need a vacation. That is all.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Monday, July 10, 2006
Some video clips from KTMA TV23
UPDATE: these are all dead thanks to YouTube's take down first, ask questions never policy. Sorry, they're not going back up because I don't have the files or the time to make them again.
I mentioned a while ago my cool thrift score of a cache of old over the air TV recordings. Well, I've had a little time to upload some clips to YouTube and here they are.
I started with some stuff taped off KTMA TV23. Why I chose this one to begin with is that it was, to me, the most interesting stuff in the lot. KTMA was the channel where Mystery Science Theater 3000 was born and began. Because KTMA was a small UHF station no longer on the air as such, not a ton is known about the station by people like myself who don't live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
I like this stuff for two reasons, one of which being the MST3K connection, shame there's nothing directly MST3K related here though. The other being, I just miss the general lo-fi feeling of UHF television. Now it seems like it's too slick as all the UHFs here are network affiliated (assuming you consider UPN a network.) There's too much reality TV and infomercials and hardly any local flavor to it.
The broadcast I took this from was an airing of the 1961 3D movie The Mask from late 1988. I love this movie. Really, I do. It's a great thinly veiled LSD flick from the time before they got all hippy, it has some cool 3D sequences and was the only 3D flick Canada made. How about that?
Before I dug into these tapes, I assumed they were all locally taped (meaning Indianapolis, for those of you who have no idea what you're reading here.) I was hoping this was the same broadcast of the Mask I'd taped off of WTTV 4 (I think) hosted by Bob & Tom on the old Betamax way back in the day. Well, it wasn't, but whatever.
Two more things, and then we roll film. Someone taped over the first part of the film meaning I've lost the intro and apparently there was a 3D Three Stooges short broadcast as well. I'm really disappointed about that, as I've never see either of the 3D Stooges shorts and I'll never get to see the Movie at 8 intro. Secondly, this TV version of The Mask had commercial bumpers by famous magician Harry Blackstone. Cheesy doesn't begin to describe them. I could throw them up if someone really wants to see them.
The first two commercials are all over this broadcast. One or both appear every commercial break. (Sidenote: TV used to have a lot fewer commercials. Either that or KTMA had a big problem finding advertisers. Maybe a little of both.) Steve's Warehouse Discount Foods is a great example of a local no budget commercial that pretty much ruled the roost on UHF TV. Seriously, would you buy a head of lettuce from this guy?
Then we get to the Rax Workburger. "Fast food with style" = "We can't compete with McDonalds so here's pseudo-sophistication." Is Rax even around anymore? I've heard rumors of one still operating in the Muncie/Anderson area which, frankly, woudn't suprise me a bit.
Next up, 10,000 Auto Parts (who counted them all?) stores, another heavy KTMA advertiser. Or at least they were on my tape. Not really local commercials, as the local content is just tagged on at the end, but, hey, CHUCK YEAGER!!! AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!
Now, let's get serious. Here's the goods. If there's one thing I will always associate with UHF TV, it's cheesy movies. (There's a reason MST3K started on UHF.) So, here's a couple of ads for then upcoming films on KTMA. Neither of these are on DVD, so watch and marvel at these RARE OMG L@@K clips.
Tell me the Plutonium Incident couldn't have been an episode of MST3K.
This one for Catlow looks a little more pro. I'm guessing this commercial was included as part of the movie package they purchased and all they did was slap their logo at the end.
Here's a commercial for some great locally produced content. I'm not a huge wrestling fan, but these shows were all over the UHF stations in the late 80s. This commercial features Jim Cornette and lots of shots of the old NWA wrestlers. I remember some of this stuff.
Finally, here's the end of the movie. Barry ZeVan, who hosted this showing, was as best I can tell the weather guy on KTMA. I guess he was one of those local celebrity types. I love his delivery here. If only he would have thrown in a "who loves ya baby?" at the end, I would marry this man, assuming out type of love is legal in the Minneapolis area.
Top of the hour, so here's the KTMA station ID. Boring, but here for posterity.
And with that, I'm signing off. Enjoy. There's more where this came from.
I mentioned a while ago my cool thrift score of a cache of old over the air TV recordings. Well, I've had a little time to upload some clips to YouTube and here they are.
I started with some stuff taped off KTMA TV23. Why I chose this one to begin with is that it was, to me, the most interesting stuff in the lot. KTMA was the channel where Mystery Science Theater 3000 was born and began. Because KTMA was a small UHF station no longer on the air as such, not a ton is known about the station by people like myself who don't live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
I like this stuff for two reasons, one of which being the MST3K connection, shame there's nothing directly MST3K related here though. The other being, I just miss the general lo-fi feeling of UHF television. Now it seems like it's too slick as all the UHFs here are network affiliated (assuming you consider UPN a network.) There's too much reality TV and infomercials and hardly any local flavor to it.
The broadcast I took this from was an airing of the 1961 3D movie The Mask from late 1988. I love this movie. Really, I do. It's a great thinly veiled LSD flick from the time before they got all hippy, it has some cool 3D sequences and was the only 3D flick Canada made. How about that?
Before I dug into these tapes, I assumed they were all locally taped (meaning Indianapolis, for those of you who have no idea what you're reading here.) I was hoping this was the same broadcast of the Mask I'd taped off of WTTV 4 (I think) hosted by Bob & Tom on the old Betamax way back in the day. Well, it wasn't, but whatever.
Two more things, and then we roll film. Someone taped over the first part of the film meaning I've lost the intro and apparently there was a 3D Three Stooges short broadcast as well. I'm really disappointed about that, as I've never see either of the 3D Stooges shorts and I'll never get to see the Movie at 8 intro. Secondly, this TV version of The Mask had commercial bumpers by famous magician Harry Blackstone. Cheesy doesn't begin to describe them. I could throw them up if someone really wants to see them.
The first two commercials are all over this broadcast. One or both appear every commercial break. (Sidenote: TV used to have a lot fewer commercials. Either that or KTMA had a big problem finding advertisers. Maybe a little of both.) Steve's Warehouse Discount Foods is a great example of a local no budget commercial that pretty much ruled the roost on UHF TV. Seriously, would you buy a head of lettuce from this guy?
Then we get to the Rax Workburger. "Fast food with style" = "We can't compete with McDonalds so here's pseudo-sophistication." Is Rax even around anymore? I've heard rumors of one still operating in the Muncie/Anderson area which, frankly, woudn't suprise me a bit.
Next up, 10,000 Auto Parts (who counted them all?) stores, another heavy KTMA advertiser. Or at least they were on my tape. Not really local commercials, as the local content is just tagged on at the end, but, hey, CHUCK YEAGER!!! AMERICA, FUCK YEAH!
Now, let's get serious. Here's the goods. If there's one thing I will always associate with UHF TV, it's cheesy movies. (There's a reason MST3K started on UHF.) So, here's a couple of ads for then upcoming films on KTMA. Neither of these are on DVD, so watch and marvel at these RARE OMG L@@K clips.
Tell me the Plutonium Incident couldn't have been an episode of MST3K.
This one for Catlow looks a little more pro. I'm guessing this commercial was included as part of the movie package they purchased and all they did was slap their logo at the end.
Here's a commercial for some great locally produced content. I'm not a huge wrestling fan, but these shows were all over the UHF stations in the late 80s. This commercial features Jim Cornette and lots of shots of the old NWA wrestlers. I remember some of this stuff.
Finally, here's the end of the movie. Barry ZeVan, who hosted this showing, was as best I can tell the weather guy on KTMA. I guess he was one of those local celebrity types. I love his delivery here. If only he would have thrown in a "who loves ya baby?" at the end, I would marry this man, assuming out type of love is legal in the Minneapolis area.
Top of the hour, so here's the KTMA station ID. Boring, but here for posterity.
And with that, I'm signing off. Enjoy. There's more where this came from.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Early Motown Thrift Score...
(Sorry, I don't have a pic, yet. My camera was being wonky last night.)
I'm actually going to list the contents of this one, Since I don't have a picture yet. Note: most of these records have initials on one side of the label, but they're still very clean, amazing considering I found them in one of those godawful wire record racks. Odd mix of early Motown and country and promo stamped records from the Liberty group of labels.
Gordy 7001 - The Temptations - Dreams Come True/Isn't She Pretty
Gordy 7002 - Lee & the Leopards - Come Into My Palace/Trying To Make It (2 copies)
Miracle M5 - The Temptations - Oh, Mother Of Mine/Romance Without Finance
Motown M1013 - Henry Lumpkin - Don't Leave Me/What Is a Man (Without a Woman)
Motown M1019 - Popcorn and the Mohawks - Real Good Lovin/Have I The Right
Tamla 54036 - The Miracles - Ain't It Baby/The Only One I Love
Tamla 54048 - The Miracles - I Can't Believe/Everybody's Gotta Pay Some Dues
Tamla 54049 - Sammy Ward - What Makes You Love Him/Don't Take It Away
Tamla 54051 - Bob Kayli - Tim Me Tight/Small Sad Sam
Tamla 54069 - The Miracles - Way Over There/If Your Mother Only Knew (has a small crack on outer edge. Gaah!)
And the others:
Flatt & Scrugs - Ballad of Jed Clampett
The Ly-Dells - Wizard of Love
Hank Williams - Crazy Heart EP (reissue?)
Johnny Cash - Now There Was a Song! Vol II EP
Meade Lux Lewis - Beartrap Stomp
Jerry Landis (aka Paul Simon) - Play Me a Sad Song
The Fleetwoods - Truly Do
Gloria Lynne - I Know Love
Earl Palmer - New Orleans Medley
Bobby Darin - You're the Reason I'm Living
Ray Charles - I Can't Stop Lovin' You/You Are My Sunshine (reissue)
The Clique - Drifter Medley (promo copy)
Fats Domino - Blue Monday
I also found a VHS of some IU games from '85. I could care less about basketball, I bought it for the commercials. It's funny as 75% of the companies that advertised during these two IU games in 1985 are either out of business or have been swallowed up by larger companies.
I'm actually going to list the contents of this one, Since I don't have a picture yet. Note: most of these records have initials on one side of the label, but they're still very clean, amazing considering I found them in one of those godawful wire record racks. Odd mix of early Motown and country and promo stamped records from the Liberty group of labels.
Gordy 7001 - The Temptations - Dreams Come True/Isn't She Pretty
Gordy 7002 - Lee & the Leopards - Come Into My Palace/Trying To Make It (2 copies)
Miracle M5 - The Temptations - Oh, Mother Of Mine/Romance Without Finance
Motown M1013 - Henry Lumpkin - Don't Leave Me/What Is a Man (Without a Woman)
Motown M1019 - Popcorn and the Mohawks - Real Good Lovin/Have I The Right
Tamla 54036 - The Miracles - Ain't It Baby/The Only One I Love
Tamla 54048 - The Miracles - I Can't Believe/Everybody's Gotta Pay Some Dues
Tamla 54049 - Sammy Ward - What Makes You Love Him/Don't Take It Away
Tamla 54051 - Bob Kayli - Tim Me Tight/Small Sad Sam
Tamla 54069 - The Miracles - Way Over There/If Your Mother Only Knew (has a small crack on outer edge. Gaah!)
And the others:
Flatt & Scrugs - Ballad of Jed Clampett
The Ly-Dells - Wizard of Love
Hank Williams - Crazy Heart EP (reissue?)
Johnny Cash - Now There Was a Song! Vol II EP
Meade Lux Lewis - Beartrap Stomp
Jerry Landis (aka Paul Simon) - Play Me a Sad Song
The Fleetwoods - Truly Do
Gloria Lynne - I Know Love
Earl Palmer - New Orleans Medley
Bobby Darin - You're the Reason I'm Living
Ray Charles - I Can't Stop Lovin' You/You Are My Sunshine (reissue)
The Clique - Drifter Medley (promo copy)
Fats Domino - Blue Monday
I also found a VHS of some IU games from '85. I could care less about basketball, I bought it for the commercials. It's funny as 75% of the companies that advertised during these two IU games in 1985 are either out of business or have been swallowed up by larger companies.
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