Multi-instrumentalist and revolving UFO member MVP, Paul Raymond, passed away recently. Raymond played keyboards and guitar in many different iterations of UFO and had a memorable participation in The Michael Schenker Band. A very reliable addition to any band, his energy and enthusiasm will be missed in the music world.
All posts by Andrew Swartz
Peter Tork Passes
Sadly, multi instrumentalist Peter Tork of The Monkees fame has passed at 77. Pete contributed bass, guitar, banjo, keyboards and vocals to The Monkees’ recordings and live shows. Depicted in the show as the simple minded one, in actuality Tork was quite the opinionated “thinker”. Pete passed an audition to become one of the four members of a prefabricated band to appear in a weekly television show copying the Beatles massive cultural appeal in the late 1960’s. Tork did have the ability to play an actual musical instrument which is more then can be said of half of the other members. It didn’t matter much as The Monkees, as they would be christened, had a big record company and weekly television exposure in support of crafting radio friendly music to an audience that could be easily be reached and shown promotional films of the new tunes. Marketing genius! But more than a bit artistically crass. That being said, the creative forces behind the whole Monkees machine produced some timeless pop song classics and the group was a worldwide sensation for a year or two. Tork was the first member to leave the band and went on to continue performing and recording his own music and then rejoined The Monkees in the late 1980’s after MTV played the old TV series to a younger audience. Monkeemania was reborn and their popularity ramped up again for awhile. The Monkees have continued to tour over the years.
Peaceful journey, Mr. Pete!
Do They Give A Trophy Out To Who’s Ejection Is The Best?
On the eve of the grandest viewer spectacle there is, namely, Super Bowl LIII, I would like to share this collection of dubious player performances in football that lead to the player being ejected from the game. I know these athletes are very highly paid and are thought to be role models to youthful fans, and all, but these are very competitive games and in football there is a lot of contact. Let’s face it. Tempers flare, bad manners surface and sportsmanship can go out the window. There is always next week to show people what you’ve got. Anyway, enjoy the blatant cheap shots and the over the top play contained herein. Who know? Maybe some of these players have a future in Professional Wrestling.
DICK MILLER, R.I.P.
Sadness at the passing of great character actor Dick Miller. A wise cracking, world weary, dependable presence in many horror and science fiction pictures including “The Terminator”, “The Howling”, “Gremlins” and an early starring role in the Roger Corman directed “A Bucket of Blood” which is linked to here. Macabre in the extreme, “Blood” is the tale of a destitute artist who turns his fortunes around and becomes the darling of the local Art crowd after he adopts a shocking new change to his sculpting style. Can you guess how? A twisted, enjoyable romp made back when Miller was younger and fresher and not his more recognizable, grizzled self. Miller was 90.
POSEIDEN ADVENTURE – 1972 – WHEN DISASTER MOVIES REIGNED
Here is a disaster flick with an unhappy New Year’s theme. A luxury cruiser on its final voyage has the misfortune of confronting and ending up on the losing end of an earthquake generated massive tidal wave. The net effect is that the USS Poseiden is flipped upside down by the wave and as a result everything down is now up and vise versa. A group of survivors of the initial disaster then mount an effort to find a way to be saved by the eventual rescue crews. What proceeds from this point is a potboiler of clashing ideologies and personalities and unforeseen ship generated crises. What great fun! Gene Hackman leads this merry band as they make their way toward the engine room and meet up with disaster tacked upon disaster. Also features Ernest Borgnine, Stella Stevens, Red Buttons, Shelley Winters and Roddy McDowall. It will keep your attention. Nice special effects. I guess Airport started the disaster trend in movies in the early 1970’s and this one followed before being joined by Earthquake and more Airport flicks. Gritty goings on here to be sure.
RECOMMENDED HOLIDAY ACTION MOVIE VIEWING!
You may be a big fan of Christmas themed movie at this time of the year and that is fine. But there is a wide variety of viewing experiences available to you and a good action movie may be what you are looking for. I will recommend a few thoroughly enjoyable action/adventure flicks.
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) – Clint Eastwood as a bank robber on the run who winds up getting drawn back into a repeat heist attempt on a bank where everything eventually went bad the first time out. The second attempt ends up no better. This is a very entertaining, well paced movie with plenty of violence, humor and beautifully shot locales that it will keep you glued to it. Jeff Bridges and George Kennedy turn in memorable performances. This was written and directed by Michael Cimino who would go on to direct The Deer Hunter, an epic of another kind. One of Eastwood’s better films.
Die Hard 2 (1990) – Bruce Willis back as John McClane, a New York city cop, with a nose for terrorist plots. This time he is spending time in an airport before Christmas battling rogue military types who are involved with nefarious misdeeds. Nice action interludes and some pretty implausible heroic antics from Willis. It is amazing how it all draws you in.
Jaws (1975) – For good or bad, this movie ushered in the era of the big blockbuster Summer or Holiday released film. In this case, it was for the better. Although a relatively early effort from Steven Spielberg, it is maybe his most easily watchable film. This thing packs a whollup every time you see it! The small coastal town that is plagued by a killer great white shark and the ill equipped attempts made to finally destroy the man killer make for a timeless classic. Amazingly engrossing storytelling and a visual treat!
Go now and catch up on viewing your own favorite holiday time classics.
Another Five Choices For A Halloween Marathon Movie Day/Night
When you get right down to it, there are a ton of potential choices for Halloween movie viewing marathons. For the sake of brevity, I am choosing just five selections which will still take you a good day to get through so plan ahead to take the day off from your work or school grind!
- Wolfen (1981) – a cop is assigned to investigate a series of animal attacks. Is there a pack of werewolves on the loose in modern day New York? Some creepy situations and a suspenseful story should keep you entertained throughout. Albert Finney and Gregory Hines are the stars of this one.
- Attack Of The Mushroom People (1963) – OK. This one is really freaky. A group of young folk out on a boat trip have an accident and are stranded on a mysterious island. They take refuge in another landlocked but larger ship. The ship’s journal is examined and a warning is discovered: don’t eat the island’s ample mushroom supply. In order to survive, they’ve got to eat and it’s just easier to grab some of the island’s main staple. That, as you will find out, is a big mistake. Dripping with atmosphere and garish color, this is a must see shocker.
- The Thing (1951) – Science fiction film cornerstone that still maintains its freshness to this day. An alien spaceship is discovered buried in the ice by an American military team stationed in a remote arctic outpost. Although the ship is destroyed, the craft’s only surviving occupant is accidentally reawakened and is in a thoroughly pissed off frame of mind. A last stand ensues as humans battle a formidable alien foe to the death. Essential viewing!
- The Lost Continent (1968) – More whacked out material as a group aboard a doomed ocean freighter become stranded in the Sargasso Sea, a place of strange clogging and rampant seaweed and some cool matte painting shots of a ship graveyard. Yes. There have been others who have also unfortunately succumbed to the deadly area. Attempting to find a way out of the morass, the ship’s inhabitants have a run in with a population of lost in time Spanish conquistadors who rule the region by force. Also thrown into the mix are some oversized creepy crawlies who see anything on two legs as there next meal. This is all great fun.
- Lifeforce (1985) – A huge alien ship is investigated by a team of astronauts from Earth and three seemingly human survivors from the other worldly ship are brought onboard the astronaut’s space shuttle. One by one the human crew succumb to some bizarre malady with only a sole survivor who incinerates the shuttle and takes an escape pod back to Earth. A rescue mission recovers the three aliens from the wrecked shuttle to the detriment of the human population as they come out of a dormant state and seek out our life sustaining energy or lifeforce. A plague ensues on Earth as these energy vampires plunder our planet. Epic destruction and carnage result. Pretty entertaining!
So there are another five fine films that I would personally take a day/night to sit through consecutively for a perfect Halloween viewing experience!
TOP 5 MOVIES FOR MY HALLOWEEN VIEWING
I have given a minute or two of thought to what I would enjoy most viewing on Halloween. I would most definitely need to take the day off of work because this lineup would probably consume a good 10 hours. Sacrifices must be made! Granted this is the first of what may be a series of some of my most adored movies piled together in one marathon viewing. These movies are what came off the top of my head at the time and can definitely be mixed and matched and replaced with other selections. I think that makes sense.
- 5 Million Years To Earth – 1967 – A Hammer Films science fiction entry that postulates that some long ago Martians visited our remote ancestors and planted the seeds of intelligence in our shaggy, far removed, ancient ape-like relatives. Is the recently uncovered spaceship located in the London underground still harboring a Martian presence?
- The Mummy – 1959 – This is a great one to curl up with your favorite snack and beverage and soak up the suspense. Very entertaining and satisfying mummy on the loose tale. Christopher Lee is mainly silent and heavily bandaged as the title character. Peter Cushing is out to stop The Mummy’s diabolical rampage.
- The Fearless Vampire Killers – 1967 – Roman Polanski directed and co-starred in this hugely atmospheric comedy/horror piece about a couple of bumbling monster hunters who try to rescue a damsel who is fortified in a castle full of undead vampires. Great sets!
- Horror Express – 1972 – Another Cushing/Lee vehicle set aboard a trans-Siberian train that transports an ages old ape man found frozen in ice. The recently unearthed specimen seems to not be fully dead and can swap human hosts! A true hoot.
- Invasion – 1966 – A hospital is literally held hostage as an alien presence temporarily makes a stop on Earth and has to recover its lost property before it can again go back to outer space. It’s bad enough being in a hospital, as it is!
Like I said, I will make another list of five more films that it would be Heaven to just spend Halloween day watching back to back. Maybe I’ll defer it until Thanksgiving or Christmas. I’ve got time off then. Check some of these films out and enjoy!
HAMMER HORROR FUN – DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1966)
Back when Hammer Films were all the rage and knocking horror fans dead at the box office, “Dracula: Prince of Darkness” marked the return of Christopher Lee to the title roll of the infamous undead vampire king. He had gone away from the role after his turn as the blood sucker in the remarkable “Horror of Dracula” (1958), one of Hammer Films’ first stabs at rebooting the Universal monster cycle from films decades before. Lee appeared in Hammer Films such as “The Gorgon” (1964) and “She” (1965). He just wasn’t interested in playing Dracula. But through whatever form of alchemy and monetary incentive, Lee menaced again in “Dracula: Prince of Darkness”. It had to be money that got him back because this is not the juiciest script that Lee could have gotten. He has no lines of dialogue but sneers and hisses a lot and manhandles his intended victims. This is a fun view, though. Dracula has a life long human servant who makes sure that two couples spend the night in Dracula’s old castle. You see, Dracula is now no more than collected dust from the last time he was destroyed in “The Brides of Dracula” (1960). Lee didn’t appear in that entry. But, anyway, the servant dispatches one of the guests in the bloodiest way possible in order to bathe Dracula’s ashes in the life giving, red stuff. Before long, the King of Vampires is back terrorizing the countryside in his endless quest for fresh blood. Plenty of atmosphere, moody music and heroics from Peter Cushing as Van Helsing and Hammer veteran Andrew Kier.
BLACULA – 1972- VAMPIRES RUN AMOK!
African prince is “converted” to blood thirsty, undead vampire by Dracula. The Prince becomes a vampire and progresses through the centuries turning others in to vampires in his passing. Very entertaining vampire flick from the 1970’s that follows Blacula’s modern day wake of death and destruction as he feeds his hunger for blood. Naturally, a lot of the film takes place at night which lends a creepy air and some of the surprise vampire attacks are startling. Some of the action is clumsy and dumb but William Marshall as Blacula lends a sinister, menacing presence. Fantasy movie veteran Elisha Cook Jr. turns up as a hospital attendant. (See “The Night Stalker”, “House on Haunted Hill”). As I have said many times before, they don’t make them like this anymore. This movie has a look that is ALL 1970’s.
Keith Moon Departs – 40 Years On
Wunderkind drummer for The Who, Keith Moon, left this mortal coil 40 years ago. What a loss. The legendary madman lead an alcohol and drug fueled existence that bolstered his outgoing personality and flashy, unorthodox, drum style. Alas, this very fast lifestyle also accelerated an early end to his explosive drumming style and life. As the years wore on and the intoxicants flowed, so to did his strength and lifeforce get tapped. Moon died at the age of 32 on September 7, 1978. Please examine YouTube videos of his earlier days when he was in his prime. You will be amazed.
Vincent Price’s Dracula (1982) – Good Halloween Fare
A documentary detailing the history of the vampire character Dracula, assembled using various movie clips and the narration of horror icon, Vincent Price. You’ll see clips from the silent “Nosferatu” and other cinematic appearances featuring the ancient blood sucker such as Lugosi in “Mark of the Vampire”, and the 1950’s alternative vampire film, “The Vampire” . “VPD” is a good flick to curl up by the fire to watch as we come upon the Autumn season and move closer to Halloween. Heavy on the garlic fries. Hehe.
THE THAW – 2009 – CREEPY CLIMATE CHANGE CRAWLIES – UPDATED REVIEW
The premise of this queasy little tale is that climate change, aka global warming, has caused the partial thawing of a wooly mammoth up in Northern climes that is infested with an ancient parasite that emerges ready and willing to infest a New Age. The roughly cockroach sized bugs burrow under your skin and lay eggs that basically feed on their host and then emerge ready to find a new home. This movie is definitely not for the squeamish! Yes. I felt my skin crawl on more than one occasion. There are numerous grotesque set pieces throughout this flick.
All in all, an engaging horror film with a cameo from Val Kilmer as the scientist who finds the insects and reiterates the potential horrors lurking unseen that will be unleashed by climate change. Whether that is true or not is of course speculation or inevitability depending on your point of view.
GRAVEYARD SHIFT (1990) – CALL SEVERAL EXTERMINATORS!
A mildly amusing Saturday afternoon diversion, “Graveyard Shift” was based on a Stephen King short story. Here it is fleshed out into movie length and a large part of that filling is loaded with oozing, despicable caricatures. A bunch of people you could care less about are tasked with cleaning up the lower level area of a mill located somewhere on the east coast. Maybe the extraction of all the crap which has accumulated down there over the years will alleviate some of the rat problem that infests the place. What is not known is that the mother of all rodents resides in the shadowy depths and it is ALWAYS hungry for human flesh. Not the worst way to waste 90 minutes but stay tuned for some heavy gore scenes between the warring factions of vermin, human and rat. The King story is quite different in that it involves one man trapped in a collapsing underground labyrinth with a gigantic rodent in hot pursuit. Yuck!
Check out this link below which recounts graveyard shift workers’ sometimes scary working conditions. A few good chills will be had:
https://www.ranker.com/list/creepy-night-shift-stories/rosa-pasquarella