Paxton

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The Pirate Movie turns 30 years old today

Posted in movies, pop culture with tags anniversary, movies, pirates, pop culture, reviews on August 6, 2012 by Paxton

The Pirate Movie starring Christopher Atkins and Kristy MacNichol was released on August 6, 1982, which is 30 years ago today. Many people consider this movie a cheesy knockoff of the play Pirates of Penzance. However, while it’s incredibly cheesy, it’s more accurate to say that it’s a spoof of the Penzance play. It did not set the box office on fire, but HBO would play it continuously throughout the 80s causing it to have a cult following.

Here’s a newspaper ad of the movie from the day it was released on Aug 6.

Pirate Movie

Not only did this movie spoof pirate movies, it also spoofed musicals like Grease and even had some Star Wars jokes. It seemed like the cast had a really good time making it and most of the songs were very well written.

Check out the awesomely 80s trailer:

I am a big fan of musicals and this was a great one. The soundtrack is truly one for the ages. I still listen to (and workout out to) songs on this album. The songs on the album included some of the more famous Penzance songs like Modern Major-General and Pirate King, but also featured newly written songs specifically for the movie.

Some of my favorite songs in the movie include:

Pumpin’ and Blowin’ by Kristy McNichol (very much a late ’70s-early 80s tune)

The Modern Major-General Song

I am a Pirate King

The very Grease-like final number Happy Endings:

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Walking in the footsteps of Billy the Kid and other roadtrips I want to take

Posted in Americana, Billy the Kid, pop culture, roadtrip with tags Billy the Kid, gunfighters, Kool Aid, LEB, Nerdy Roadtrip, pop culture, roadtrip, Wizard of Oz on August 3, 2012 by Paxton

Brian has given us a good assignment this week. He wants us to plan the ultimate pop culture roadtrip. I have already gone on several geeky roadtrips in my life thanks to having been a traveling IT consultant for about 8 years. I’ll start chronicling more of those soon. I already talked about two Star Wars Roadtrips that I’ve taken (Star Wars Celebrations I and II). But I think Brian’s idea is to plan a road trip that you want to take.

There are several I could do, but one is definitely at the top. And I’ve discussed it before, both on the Nerd Lunch Podcast and here on the site. I want to walk the Billy the Kid Trail in New Mexico.

I’ve been a huge fan of Billy the Kid since high school. I’ve read a ton of books about him (and other gunslingers). Plus, my wife is from New Mexico, so it’s totally doable. There are several places in New Mexico pertaining to the famous outlaw. The biggest would probably be the Lincoln State Monument in Lincoln, NM.

(Via Jeff Arnold’s West)

The little town of Lincoln has been preserved almost exactly as it was back in Billy’s day. You can still visit the courthouse in which he was imprisoned and then famously shot his way out of, killing two deputies in the process. There’s also the Wortley Hotel which was once owned by Pat Garrett, the man who shot Billy. The hotel was also the final dining place of Bob Ollinger, who was one of the deputies Billy killed in his getaway. Not only would this place be awesome for Billy the Kid buffs, but the town is almost exactly how it was in the Old West. It would be great to see how things were back then as I’m fascinated with the time period.

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Nerd Lunch and Atomic Geek crossover episodes!

Posted in nostalgia, podcast, pop culture, TV shows with tags Nerd Lunch Podcast, podcast, podcasts, pop culture, The Atomic Geeks, TV shows on July 31, 2012 by Paxton

This is week #2 of the HUGE Nerd Lunch/Atomic Geeks Summer Crossover series. This week, the casts of both shows get all mixed up and swap members.

First up is Nerd Lunch Episode 48. Digio and Downs join CT and Kristen from the Geek Girls Network for an in-depth, expletive-laden discussion of Doctor Who.

Since Jeeg and I weren’t on this episode, I literally have no idea what they talked about…well, other than Dr Who. And maybe the Tardis. And Daleks. But that is the sum total of my Dr Who knowledge.

While Nerd Lunch yells at each other about the “easy fix button” that is the Sonic Screwdriver (I guess I knew that term, too) Jeeg and I traveled over to the Atomic Geeks for Episode 172 in which we discuss “Mash Ups” with Christian and Bloom.

I can tell you we talked about mashing up such things as board games and 80s-90s sitcoms, Super heroes and the AFI 100 greatest movies list and Pac-Man and horror movies. It’s all mixed up and confusing, much like this Summer Crossover series, but it’s a lot of fun.

To get Nerd Lunch Episode 48:
Download the episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner. Or, listen to the show on NerdLunch.net.

To get The Atomic Geeks Episode 172:
Download the episode from iTunes or listen to it on The Internet Machine at the Atomic Geeks’ website.

Review of Oz Book 6: The Emerald City of Oz (1910)

Posted in books, Wizard of Oz with tags Book Report, books, Oz books readthru, reviews, Wizard of Oz on July 30, 2012 by Paxton

Moving right along in my quest to read all of the original Frank Baum Oz novels. Here we are at Book 6. To see my reviews of the first 5 books in this series, click the banner above. Otherwise, keep on reading…

Like the last book, I picked up the illustrated eBook of this from the B&N Nook Store for .99 from Eltanin Publishing. They have rendered a beautifully edited and formatted text and kept all the original Neill illustrations intact. I have been supremely happy with Eltanin’s work thus far on the Oz eBooks I’ve read (Books 4, 5 and 6). They are well worth purchasing and you can’t beat the price. Eltanin is slowly working their way through this series. I also picked up book 7 from them. Unfortunately they haven’t released anything further than book 7 but my hopes are high that the rest will come soon. Check out Eltanin Publishing for some really nice eBooks.

So, the last Oz book, The Road to Oz, was released in 1909 and this book was released the following summer in 1910. As I mentioned, John Neill would once again contribute wonderfully detailed illustrations for the book’s interiors. As a side note, John Neill would go on to write and illustrate several Oz books after Frank Baum died.

With this book, Baum had every intention of ending the Oz series. While reading the book, you can easily see that Baum was closing the door on Oz. We had seen him, in Book 5, parade around characters from his other non-Oz books to drum up interest in those with the hopes of sending his fans to his other stories.

With this being “the last Oz book” as Baum originally envisioned, Baum pulled out all the storytelling stops. Instead of telling one story where we follow a group of characters through a fairly land all the way until the end of the book, in this book Baum tells two different story threads and shifts between them. The first story thread involves the Nome King who first appeared back in Book 3. He’s extremely pissed at being defeated by a little girl and her pet chicken. Plus, they stole his magic belt. So, he gathers his army, convinces several more evil and sinister characters in Oz to take up his cause and storm the Emerald City to take it by force. While the Nome King builds this army and plans his attack, the second story thread involves Dorothy returning to Oz to ask Ozma to allow her and her Aunt and Uncle to live there permanently. The cyclone from Book 1 has destroyed their Kansas farm and the land is about to be taken over by the bank. Ozma agrees and sends Dorothy and her Aunt and Uncle on a carriage tour throughout the countryside of Oz. Along the way, Dorothy learns of the impending attack on the Emerald City and tries to return in time to warn Ozma.

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A counterpoint review of The Garbage Pail Kids retrospective book

Posted in 80s, books, Garbage Pail Kids, pop culture, reviews with tags Book Report, books, Garbage Pail Kids, nostalgia, pop culture, reviews on July 26, 2012 by Paxton

Back in April, over on Nerd Lunch, CT wrote an extremely honest review of that Garbage Pail Kids retrospective book that was released earlier this year. He admitted that he didn’t have the nostalgia tied in with the cards to make him really love that book.

I, on the other hand, do have that nostalgia and CT had me write a counterpoint to his book review. That review was just posted today over on Nerd Lunch.