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Today is the 50th Anniversary of JFK’s assassination

Posted in nostalgia, pop culture, roadtrip with tags anniversary, Nerdy Roadtrip, nostalgia, pop culture, roadtrip on November 22, 2013 by Paxton

50 years ago today, JFK was killed in Dallas. It’s up to you to interpret how or why he was killed. There are plenty of theories to choose from. Personally, I think here is more to the “Lee Harvey Oswald story” that we don’t know. I don’t think Oswald planned it on his own, though he may have actually done the deed on his own. I don’t know, a the time this occurred, I wasn’t going to be born for another 11 years. Anyway, I’m sort of fascinated by Kennedy’s assassination and the culture storm that has sort of erupted around it. I even visited the site of the assassination.

Via Newsbusters.org

I graduated college in Summer 1997 and was sent to Dallas, TX for 7 weeks of training for my new job in IT consulting. While there, I decided to take advantage and visit Dealy Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository building.

A few friends of mine and I drove there and when we arrived we decided to drive the main street in front of Dealy where Kennedy was killed. Below is a picture out of the car window at the infamous fence on the grassy knoll (on the left) next to Dealy Plaza (white structure on the right). Our car is approximately where Kennedy’s limousine was when the shots were fired. Maybe even a little bit past.

After getting out of the car and walking towards Dealy Plaza, I stood where Abraham Zapruder stood and snapped a picture of the road Kennedy traveled and the Texas School Book Depository building looming in the back (brick building far left). In Zapruder’s footage there was a street sign on the road that blocked the view back in the early 60s. The street lamp in the very middle of the picture is the same one that is in the above picture.

I’m not going to lie, standing in Dealy Plaza and on the grassy knoll looking back at the School Book Depository building was surreal and a bit eerie. Lots of living history. So much happened. It just feels ominous standing there. My group of friends and I probably didn’t talk for like 10 minutes as we walked around.

After looking around a little bit we walked towards the School Book Depository building to get a better look. The Depository is no longer operating. It was bought by the state and is now run as The Sixth Floor Museum. Tours are offered. So we bought a ticket.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: My Boyfriend’s Back (1993)

Posted in Halloween, holiday with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013, Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, vintage, zombies on October 21, 2013 by Paxton

With all the mostly horror based zombie movies I’ve been covering this month, I thought I’d try a more comedy based zombie movie. I’ve never watched today’s movie. I remember it being released, but I never got around to watching it. Today’s little gem of a movie is My Boyfriend’s Back from 1993.

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The movie is about a boy named Johnny who is in love with a childhood friend from school named Missy. One night, Johnny intervenes in a robbery and takes a bullet to save Missy’s life. Johnny soon returns from the grave as a zombie so he can escort Missy to prom, but he discovers that he’s slowly disintegrating and must eat human flesh to survive long enough to actually go to the prom.

That’s the helicopter view of the plot. There’s also some not-so-subtle commentary on tolerance of people that are different. But let’s first look at some of the stars of the movie. Johnny and Missy, the main characters, are played by relative newcomers (at the time). Neither are really known for anything else. However, Missy’s douchebag boyfriend and his neanderthal buddy are both played by very well known actors.

Check out an impossibly young Matthew Fox and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

At this time, Matthew Fox had only appeared in the TV shows Wings and Freshman Dorm (with Teen Witch‘s Robin Lively). It would be another year before he’d land Party of Five. Hoffman had had small parts in Steve Martin’s Leap of Faith, Pacino’s Scent of a Woman and John Cusack’s Money for Nothing. It’s fun seeing these guys in very early roles. And don’t get me wrong, the roles are small. Especially Hoffman’s.

Another famous face that pops up, in essentially a cameo, is Matthew McConaughey. He’s in the theater scene taunting our hero Johnny.

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Before this, McConaughey had only appeared in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries. This movie came out the same year as his breakout role in Dazed and Confused. These are the most famous actors squirreled away in this movie. Other notable appearances include Paul Dooley, Cloris Leachman, Austin Pendleton and Paxton Whitehead.

So, how’s the movie? Honestly, it’s not very good. A little too goofy. A little too dumb. The screenwriter, Dean Lorey, has written other stuff I liked like Major Payne and a bunch of the Season 4 Arrested Development episodes. But this movie is not good. It’s not garbage, but it’s not really good either, I’m sad to say. I thought this would be a fun diversion from the other mostly horror zombies I’ve been covering but it’s sadly not a good distraction.

One bright spot is that the movie was sort of book ended with some cool comic art. I’m not really sure what it had to do with the movie but the opening started off like you were reading a comic book called My Boyfriend’s Back.

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The artwork is done by Tony Gleeson who has worked with Neal Adams’ studio and is still actively drawing today. But again, I’m not really sure what it had to do with the story in the movie. It’s not like Johnny collected comics in any obvious way.

So, no, I don’t really recommend this and I don’t really have any plans to watch it ever again.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2013: Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive (1992)

Posted in monsters, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, zombies with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2013, Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, nostalgia, pop culture, reviews, zombies on October 18, 2013 by Paxton

Today I’m going to take a look at Peter Jackson’s 1992 cult zombie film, Dead Alive.

Suprisingly, I’d never seen this movie before. I used to be a big gore hound in the late 80s. I’d heard of it at the time, but never had a chance to watch it. I like Peter Jackson’s films for the most part. The first Peter Jackson movie I ever watched was probably The Frighteners with Michael J Fox and I loved it. I even saw his ultra-cult hit Meet the Feebles. So I’m a little behind the curve on this particular movie. But with my zombie Halloween theme this year I thought this would be the perfect time to rectify this situation. So I watched it.

And I didn’t just love it. Don’t get me wrong, there were some funny and weird moments that I enjoyed. I probably would have enjoyed this even more if I had watched it with a bunch of buddies and beer or had I watched it back in the 90s. But, let’s not dwell on what I didn’t like, I’ll talk about some of the stuff I enjoyed.

I liked the leads well enough. Timothy Balme as Lionel was suitably awkward and Diana Peñalver was adorable and cute as Paquita. The crux of the story is an interesting origin for the zombie plague. It all starts with a rare mutant animal called a Sumatran Rat-Monkey that is created by plague rats raping tree monkeys. Yes, you read that right. One of these disgusting looking Rat-Monkeys is, mistakenly, I think, shipped to a zoo in New Zealand.

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In New Zealand, awkward and nebish Lionel meets Paquita who fall in love, but Lionel’s overbearing mother disapproves. While spying on the couple at the zoo, Lionel’s mother is bitten by the Rat-Monkey and turns into a flesh eating undead monster. Everyone else thinks she dies, but Lionel secretly keeps her in his basement along with a live-in nurse who the mother also turned into a monster. Soon, other victims become monsters and are put in the basement. Eventually it gets out of hand when Lionel’s shady uncle shows up looking to get a share of Lionel’s inheritance.

That’s only like half the plot. So much goes on that’s weird and nearly indescribable. You really have to see it.

At one point, Lionel is attacked by a group of punks in the graveyard. His mom attacks them, turns them into monsters and then a priest shows up and famously shouts, “I kick ass for the Lord” and uses karate to kick the monsters’ collective asses. It’s a pretty great scene.

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Vintage ads for official movie magazines from the 80s

Posted in advertising, Fangoria, magazine, movies, nostalgia, pop culture with tags Fangoria, magazine, magazines, movies, nostalgia, pop culture on August 16, 2013 by Paxton

I’ve talked about movie magazines before. As a matter of fact, back in 2010 I took a look at the Back to the Future souvenir magazine. I love official movie magazines and I have a bunch of them. These magazines were the original movie supplemental material. We didn’t have DVDs and VHS tapes didn’t normally add anything extra (some did, but it was rare). I remember seeing ads for these magazines all over my favorite magazines. I’d fill out the form and select the ones I wanted as a wish list. Just hoping that someday I’d be allowed to order a Rambo or Star Trek movie magazine through the mail.

So, I was perusing through my old Fangoria magazines recently and found a couple of these movie magazine ads. They show a ton of the magazines and it’s great to see some of the covers. So on this lazy Friday, I thought I’d show you this 80s vintage goodness.

This first ad is from 1986.

I love how the magazines are spread out like you took the pile and threw them on the table. Amazing layout. There’s that amazing Rambo magazine. They also have Rocky II, Rocky III and Rocky IV magazines. As a matter of fact there are THREE Rocky IV magazines. AND, Stallone gets a “Best Of” magazine. Damn, he was at the height of his popularity here. As for all the Rocky IV magazines, when a movie was popular enough, it would not only get an official movie magazine, it would also get an official poster magazine and an official “movie book”. I put that last one in quotes because even though it’s called a book it was still a magazine, just with more content and glossier, color pages.

You can see some of the covers on this ad are for the poster magazines (Star Trek III, Rocky II for example). Some of the other ones pictured that I think look cool include the A View to a Kill as well as The Explorers. Take a look at the list in the yellow box at the bottom and there are listed several magazines that aren’t pictured. Annie, Superman III, High Road to China, SF Superheroes, TV Superheroes, Joanie Loves Chachi and Conan the Destroyer. I would buy every single one of these magazines today.

If I were to have ordered every magazine in this ad back in the day it would have set me back $75.35. Plus $24.90 for shipping. That’s $100.25 (incl shipping) for 26 different magazines. Which is about $3.85 each. NOT BAD. It would cost well over that now to track this mess down on eBay and trader sites.

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Hanna-Barbera’s The Robonic Stooges (1977)

Posted in cartoons, nostalgia, pop culture, TV shows with tags LEB, nostalgia, pop culture, Three Stooges, TV shows on July 17, 2013 by Paxton

This week’s assignment from the League is to talk about robots. Another rather broad topic, but instead of listing my top 10 robots or something along those lines, I’d thought I’d discuss one of my favorite cartoons that happens to combine robots and…The Three Stooges?!

Yep, in late 1977 CBS aired the cartoon, The Robonic Stooges featuring Moe, Larry and Curly as bumbling, bionic super heroes. The show was produced by Hanna-Barbera.

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The show originally ran as a segment on the variety show, The Skatebirds. The Skatebirds format was extremely similar to The Banana Splits.

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The bionic enhancements to the Stooges gave them abilities that were very similar to Inspector Gadget. Extending limbs, hidden gadgets, plus the letters on their chests were actually hidden doors that open to allow the Stooges to get supplies and objects they needed for their adventures.

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Also Curly seemed to be stretchy and inflatable. Many episodes featured him getting filled with hot air and blowing away.

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The show was wacky and fun. The Stooges would bumble their way through stopping thieves and mad scientists. Often times succeeding despite screwing everything up.

The Skatebirds was cancelled at the end of 1977. However, The Robonic Stooges was popular enough to get their own show after the cancellation. However, it would be cancelled by Spring 1978 and shown in reruns for the next few years. That’s how I watched the show, in reruns in the early-to-mid 1980s.

The voice cast was very good. Unfortunately, all of the original Stooges were dead by the time the show was in production, so Moe was voiced by the great Paul Winchell, Larry by Joe Baker and Curly by Frank Welker who did a variation on his JabberJaw voice.

Another show similar to this (but no robots) was Super Globetrotters. It was another way to make real life celebrities into cartoon super heroes. And it, too, was awesome.

Episodes of this show are pretty hard to come by online. There are some clips on YouTube, but that’s about it.

Here is a shortened version of the show’s intro.