Middle-School Movie Madness: Slithis!

    In 1978, my next door neighbor took a bunch of us squabbling kids down to the local theater (the grand old long-gone Kapahulu Theater), to see a new sci-fi horror flick called "Slithis" that my brother and his friends were dying to see, and a merry old time was had by all!
  There was quite a bit of a party atmosphere going on in that theater as I recall- for this promotion, they’d gotten some guy to actually dress up in a Slithis costume and walk up and down the aisles. Myuch to his chagrin, my older friends made it a point to follow and harass the monster as he made his rounds, poking and prodding him as well as gleefully squeezing his rubber costume butt!!!
  In the lobby of the theater, they offered forms you could fill out to receive the SLITHIS SURVIVAL KIT, and the gimmick was, if you saw Slithis twice and then sent in the ticket stubs you saved, you’d be sent this so-called survival kit in the mail.  After reading over the “fine print, my friend realized we could just walk around the theater and find all the discarded movie stubs all over the ground between the seats and send it in that very day! So we went crawling around on the floors of that theater between showtimes, and when we'd all found multiple stubs enough for all of us, we scurried home, filled out the form, and sent it off! 
   A few months later, I got a package in the mail- as I recall, an 8x10 manila envelope which was the said “Survival Kit”…The package contained a glossy 8x10 photo of Slithis complete with scrawly autograph (see the picture below, which a fellow Slithis Moviegoer uploaded awhile ago on an SF forum) 

Even MORE strange however, was the accompanying LETTER from Slithis, which not only told me to “Stay off the Drugs and Stay in School” (or some parental advice like that, which was very strange to hear from a deranged mutant killer monster), but it also told us to “Watch out for my SEQUEL, “SLITHIS RETURNS”!!!"
  Well we waited and WAITED, but ya know what, that movie never came out. Maybe they just couldn’t scrape up the cash to get it off the ground, or more likely, Slithis couldn’t bear coming back out to promote the new movie and then getting harassed by my friends again!

Return To Marisa Days of Yore

Was reading online somewhere that “My Cousin Vinny” was one of the few “Courtroom Drama” films that lawyers tended to agree had done it right. Reading up on it, it occurred to me that I hadn’t seen that movie in years and YEARS, and decided to pick up a used DVD for about 7 bucks.

Watching it, it was as fun as I recalled, but HOLY TOLEDO, I. forgot. how. GODDAMN PRETTY Marisa Tomei was in this flick! Her magnificent portrayal of charismatic "Auto Specialist" Mona Lisa Vito was of course one of her most memorable and colorful characters, and MAN, just about every scene she was in was jus’ KILLIN’ ME!!! Screencaps galore follow…

Boy, can you believe that all of these different looks are from the same freaking movie? What a versatile actress! She was nad has always been one of my favorite contemporary actresses, and watching My Cousin Vinny again after all these years was a nice trip down memory lane!

Beatles "Let It Be" on Videodisc

The Beatles Let It Be Videodisc

As I've recounted earlier in this blog. the main reason I got a RCA Videodisc Player back in th early 80's was because it was the sole format that carried The Who's incredible Rockumentary "The Kids Are Alright", but it wasn't the ONLY Rock N Roll Movie that RCA somehow got the rights to- they also were the only folks who were able to release The Beatles' fifth and last movie LET IT BE!

  As you may have guessed, the first time I saw the movie, I was both intrigued by the inner workings of the recoding sessions, and quite taken aback by how much the Beatles had disintegrated as a 4-part working unit, and it made me uncomfortable to watch them fighting with each other, right there on the screen :( 

Luckily, the "Rooftop Concert" at the end of the movie saved it, though brief, those five kick-ass songs lifted me out of that funk and made me watch that movie again and again! Don"t Bring Me Down, One After 909, I've Got A Feeling, etc...what incredible performances!!!

 "Let It Be" is the ONE movie that still hasn't been released officially on DVD or Bluray, in fact, I don't think they even released it back on VHS back in the day. While I'm not too keen to revisit the squabbling,  I WOULD love to see those live performances  on my bigscreen TV!!! Still waiting....

Atomic Robo!!

I'm one of those curmudgeonly old guys who like to ramble on and on about how great comics were when I was collecting them in my youth, and honestly don't make much time for the newer stuff since so much of it doesn't interest me. Fortunately, I've got a friend who's a lot more open than I, and spends most of his monthly paycheck checking out new comics, books and graphic novels, making sure that nothing that might be good slips by! The gret thing about this is that whenever he comes across something he feels I'd like, he buys a copy for me and ships it over. I try to reimburse him, but he always refuses any sort of reward, and just digs the fact that I liked what he sent! Thanks to him, I'm kept "in the loop" of current comics, at least in a small way!
 So anyway, this past summer he came to visit, and in his suitcase were a handful of new graphic novel collections he was sure that I'd like, and among them was a quirky looking book called ATOMIC ROBO by Brian Clevinger and artist Scott Wegener.that he said was "fun in the vein of those old Marshal Law comics you liked so much" I skeptically perused one book, and whaddaya know- he was right- this comic was freakin' HILARIOUS!

Atomic Robo tells the tale of a fictional robot created in the 1930s by Famous Scientist Nikola Tesla who uses his powers, connections and super intellect to battles against Commies, Nazis, Aliens, dinosaurs and beings form other dimensions, all with wit and aplomb. The strip follows his eclectic adventures throughout the years, from the noir-ish 30's to the gritty World War II stories, to the Sci-Fi 60's and 70's and the high-tech present day! One whole Century of Atomic Robo kickassedness!
 There was so much stuff going on, one of the things I love about it is the "little things" put in it that I totally "get":  Having Thomas Edison as the arrogant Arch-enemy of the sombre Tesla had me chuckling as I read it, and as a guy who totally dug Carl Sagan growing up, having the scientist appear as Atomic Robo's adventure PARTNER kickin' alien butts ROCKED THE HOUSE!!!
 At the time, the only copies my friend could find for me were books 2 and 4, but reading the books out of order didn't hinder my enjoyment of it at all, and since then, I've gone on to collect the rest of this wonderful series and look forward to each new installment! Who knows what my friend will be turning me onto NEXT?

The Beatles "The Capitol Years" in Jewel Case Format!

 As a Beatles Fan in the USA, I grew up on the American Releases of the Beatles first few albums, and though the UK versions are the Real and infinitely superior albums, I had such a sentimental attachment to those Capitol albums that I was happy beyond belief when they announced that those LPS were getting an official CD release!

 They eventually release the first eight discs in two parts, called “The Capitol years Parts 1 &2, and came housed in these carboard mini-album replica sleeves. Very Nice, but somehow, I was disappointed that they didn’t release them in the same Jewel case format they did with the rest of the Beatles albums…the paper sleeved CDs looked funny on my shelf alongside the other CDs. Then I had an idea!

 I took the cardboard sleeves, scanned the backs and fronts, then sized them so they’d fit in empty Jewel cases, and with photoshop, recreated the lettering on the spines of the cases. I then printed them out on thick photo paper, cut them all out with my trusty x-acto, and viola, The Beatles: The Capitol Years…in Jewel Case Format!

My Beverly Cleary Collection!

Been organizing my shelves of Childrens' Books after digging out those Halloween classics a few weeks ago, and bringing out all my beloved Beverly Cleary books to scan, thought it might be interesting to take some pictures of them for posterity! 
   Up first are the Hardcover books, and these are the ones I treasure most because they're the ones that I grew up with, the ones that I read and re-read all through grade school and made me fall in love with all things Beverly Cleary!!  Through Rummage Sales and Ebay, I've managed to get my hands on just about every book edition I loved as a kid, though there are some (like "Socks") that I only have in later paperbacks.
  Next are the Dell Yearling Paperbacks that came out in the 80's that I remember my little sister bringing home from the library, at the time, the covers looked so strange and modern, now when I look at them I get the same feelings of nostalgia as the original Louis Darling/Alan Tiegreen/ etc covers!
  Then we've got the miscellaneous paperbacks and books (including the VERY interesting Beverly Cleary autobiographies where you found that so much stuff in her books happened to her in real life!(My Own Two Feet, for instance, is almost a dead-on same story as "The Luckiest Girl", they are THAT similar!) , and finally, some fun audio books-you haven't heard the Ramona story til you've herd it read by Stockard "Rizzo" Channing and Henry Huggins read by Neal Patrick "Doogie Howser" Harris!

 Hardcover Books:

Henry Huggins, Henry and the Clubhouse, Ribsy, Henry and the Paper Route, Henry and Beezus, Henry and Ribsy, Emily's Runaway Imagination, Mitch and Amy, Otis Spofford, The Luckiest Girl, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Runaway Ralph, Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Ramona Forever, Ramona the Brave, Ramona the Pest, Beezus and Ramona, Henry Huggins 50th Anniversary Edition

Beverly Cleary Hardcover Books

Dell Yearling Paperbacks (Joanne Scribner covers)

Henry Huggins, Henry and Ribsy, Henry and the Clubhouse, Henry and Beezus, Ribsy, Emily's Runaway Imagination, Ramona Forever, Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Ramona and Her Mother, Beezus and Ramona, Runaway Ralph, Socks

Beverly Cleary Dell Yearling Paperbacks (Joanne Scribner Covers)

Other Paperbacks and Books

The Mouse and The Motorcycle, Ramona and Her Father, Ellen Tebbits, Ralph S. Mouse, Ramona's World, Strider, Dear Mr, Henshaw, Otis Spofford, Fifteen, Henry and the Paper Route, A Girl From Yamhill, My Own Two Feet

Other Beverly Cleary Paperbacks and Books + her two autobiographies

Audio Books:

Ramona Forever, Henry Huggins

Beverly Cleary Audio Books: Ramona the Pest and Henry Huggins

I have a friend who was lucky enough to have met Ms. Cleary back in the seventies and is a proud owner of a personalized copy of "The Mouse And The Motorcycle", I sadly have never had a chance to meet her (yet!!!) but I was able to acquire copies of "Henry Huggins" and "Ramona Forever" autographed by Beverly Cleary through the internet! You can be sure that these are the crowns of my collection!

My Autographed Beverly Cleary books: Henry Huggins and Ramona Forever

Favorite Albums: Buddy Holly "20 Golden Greats"

I’ve always been quite fascinated by the Fabulous Ffties (and what kid growing up in the seventies wasn’t? With movies like American Graffiti and Grease out and TV Shows like Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley, we were simply inundated with the stuff! HWne me and my friend began showing an interest in learning more of the music from that golden era, my friend’s mother introduced us to some of her LPS, and one of the ones I absolutely LOVED was a nifty little “Greatest Hits” collection of sorts by Buddy Holly called “20 Golden Greats”
 As the song implies, it was a record of 20 songs with 10 songs per side, and what awesome songs they were! First off I was amazed at just how many of Buddy Holly’s songs I already KNEW, with songs like “That’s Be The Day”, Everyday”, and "Maybe Baby” to name a few, but it was  equally surprising to find that even the songs I hadn’t heard before were soooo sooo good too! Songs like “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore, Peggy Sue Got Married” and “Think It Over” were pure pop masterpieces, and songs like “Oh Boy!”,“Rave On” and the kickin’ Chuck Berry classic “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” were as rock ‘n’ Rollin’ as you got!  And songs Like “True Love Ways and “Raining In My Heart” really captured that pure 1950’s essence that made me feel like I was being transported back to those days! After a few weeks of listening to the LP at his house, I HAD to go out and get my own!

I don’t know who chose these particular songs to make up this collection, but I want to shake his or her hand. Through the years I’ve gotten quite a few Buddy Holly collections, but none have had the perfect balance of pop, rock and ballads to them like 20 Golden Greats had. It was just perfection!

  The cover for 20 Golden Greats was pretty basic: Just a brick wall with the words “Buddy Holly Lives” sprayed on it, so I would spend the entire time listening to the record reading and re-reading the song credits on the back of the album with a stoic Buddy Holly  photo smiling down  upon me. But the words that summed it up best was the text above the picture of Buddy: “In Just 18 Months, Buddy Holly Recorded 9 Top Ten Smash Hits. He Was Ahead Of His Time. He Died Before His Time. His Music Lives On.”

The Comedy Of Errors with the Honeydrippers

   Back in the 80's when Led Zeppelin was a thing of the past and the reunions still to come, there emerged several acts to keep the faith alive as it were, among them the Paul Rodgers/Jimmy Page unit THE FIRM,  and the swingin' Robert Plant/Jimmy Page project THE HONEYDRIPPERS!
Me and my friends loved both of them, but by far the one we loved best was the fun loving  Honeydrippers album, VOLUME ONE.
  I remember during the first few weeks of its release, thinking what a bone head our local DJ was because he kept referring to the group as the honeyDIPpers. as if the members all had Chicken McNuggets needing some sweet topping sauce. but I shouldn't have spoke too soon because later I found MYSELF on the end of a misheard line:
 When it came out that the HoneyDrippers was named after a line in the Led Zeppelin' song "Black Dog",  I said, "I don't remember them saying Honey Drippers in Black Dog?" My friend said, "Sure they do, it goes 'Hey hey baby when you walk that way, watch your honey drip, can't keep away', remember?",  to which I remarked, "Huh! I always thought he was saying 'Watch your heartache trip can't keep away'"! D'oh, I took a LOT of heat for that one!
  Anyway, with songs like "I Got a Woman" and the much MTV played "Sea Of Love", it was a great addition to our Led Zeppelin collection, and the song we loved most was the Jazz Swinging "Rocking At Midnight", a song we'd blast every time it came on the air!
  So a few years later and I'm cruising in the car with some friends from college, when I bring out a cassette with the Honeydrippers on it and tell them, "Hey guys, here's a kick ass album you'll all remember" and launch right into Rocking At Midnight, blasting it for all it was worth! 
  One of my friends jumps up and yells, "Holy CRAP, I LOOOOOOVVEE THIS SONG!!! This was  my FAVORITE back then!!! HELL YEAH, blast it...." before tapering off to a quiet  "Wait...what IS this?" I'm like, "Dude, It's Rocking At Midnight" by the Honeydrippers!", to which he replied, "WHO? I never heard of them OR this song before." He certainly was disappointed. 
  "Dude", I began again, "You were so excited, who did you THINK this was?" to which he sheepishly said " Aw Man, I thought you were playing 'The Curly Shuffle'!" Oh MAN, me and my friends all fell about the floor cracking up!!! From Led Zeppelin to the Three Stooges, it was priceless!!!
 Years later and I'm  ripping a bunch of compilations songs and arranging them on my harddrive, and come across the aforementioned Curly Shuffle by the hilarious Jump N The Saddle Band on it,  and as I listened to it, I heartily laughed out loud... I have to cut my friend some slack, there IS sort of a resemblance, after all!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHA

Love And Rockets, Vol.5

Ahhh, time once again for the annual offering from Los Bros Hernandez, still keeping us up to date with Maggie and Hopey and the folks from the village of Los Palomar, and introducing us to new characters as well!

Favorite Halloween Stories: Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons

  So here’s another one of those stories about the long and convoluted ways I had to go through to get my hands on another cherished childhood story, and this one involves a perfect fit for this year’s Halloween Entry: A fun ghost story called Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons!
  I’d always loved the English Reader books we read in Elementary school, enjoying those stories was one school-related thing I would do even at home, after school,  and during my free time on the weekends! But sadly, as each year came to a close and we had to return those books, those stories became no more than memories that I would think about every now and then. That is until I was a little bit older and realized most of those stories were in fact printed elsewhere and with a little bit of digging, you might actually FIND the books you loved so much!
  Perusing Swap Meets, Garage Sales and Used Bookstores helped me get my hands on a lot of those children stories, and with the advent of online services like ebay and amazon.com, I was able to pretty much recreate my childhood library book by book, story by story! But one story I REALLY wanted to get was “Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons”, a tale about a boy who scares a ghost and then blackmails him into teaching him how to disappear!

Oh MAN, did I love this story! Jimmy is a kid whose Aunt is having trouble renting out a house because it is supposedly haunted, and sure enough when he goes to inspect the place, a ghost comes sailing down the stairs and scares him right out the door! When Jimmy has time to calm down, however, he gets angry for being scared by such a thing. When he goes back to the house, he sees the ghost inside dancing and laughing at the prank he’d pulled on him,  and Jimmy is so incensed that he sticks his head in the door and yells "BOO!” at the top of his lungs, making the ghost jump and scream in fear!
  Naturally, the ghost doesn’t want Jimmy running around telling people he got the one-up on him, and after regaining composure, tells him that if he'll keep quiet, the ghost will teach him some tricks like vanishing. Jimmy takes him up on his offer, but still has to deal with getting the ghost to move out so they can rent the place. The Ghost refuses to move, so Jimmy and his Aunt move in, and hilarious hijinks arise! 
  Aw, such a great story, and in addition to the fun tale, the artwork was just superb. I found that even years later I fondly remembered what each picture looked like. I remembered the pic of Jimmy scaring the ghost on the banister. I remembered Jimmy’s Aunt giving the ghost smelling salts to revive him. And most of all, I remembered the splash page illustration that prefaced the story: an image of the ghost and Jimmy talking framed by a window of a Haunted House! I just HAD to find this story!

   After I had gotten to be pretty good at finding what I wanted on ebay, it was time to focus on the harder-to-get books, and Jimmy takes Vanishing Lessons was on the top of the list! First, going online I found out the author’s name was Walter R. Brooks, and with this information, it was onto ebay! In no time at all, I found a few sellers who had it up for auction, and soon I had copy coming my way! 

Original Book

   When I finally got ahold of it a few days later and perused the pages, I should have been in Seventh Heaven…but instead, I was puzzled. Something about it wasn’t quite right… Oh sure, the story itself was pretty much what I remembered, but the illustrations  didn’t look ANYTHING like the ones in the English Reader. In fact, I didn’t like it at all! Far from the fun, bright and ZANY illustrations I remembered, these were dour and scratchy looking…

Original Story artwork by Don Bolognese

No offense to the artist Don Bolognese, but part of the reason I loved the story so much was for the (admittedly 70’s-ish looking) illustrations, and these didn’t look like them in the least! Finally I realized the only solution: I had to find a copy of the original English Reader on ebay!
   This was a bit harder, because I couldn’t’ remember which one of those books the Ghost story was in! I DID find out that the books were all published by GINN under the name of Theodore Clymer, and once the covers for those came up on ebay, I purchased any of them that looked familiar! After months of ordering , I got my hands on a bunch of great books that contained other stories I loved, and then when I got a copy of the book All Sorts Of Things, the final story at the back was the Jimmy story I remembered so well!

All Sorts Of Things, GINN Reader

  Ah, each page’s illustrations kept blowing my mind with nostalgia, they were exactly how I remembered them, so vibrant and full of wonderment!!! Add to gether witht the marvelous story and you've got yourself a terrific Halloween story to re-read  for many years to come! Take a trip down Memory Lane with me and read along with these scans of Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons!

A Tribute To the Blue Nosed Witch...

I've already talked about my infinite love of the Children's Halloween Story of the Blue Nosed Witch by Margaret Embry, and one year at the Record Store I was working at, I decided to pay tribute to my beloved childhood story by using Blue Nosed Witch Blanche as the decoration for that month's "Upcoming Releases" Glass Bulletin Board outside. Don't know if there were many who knew who the witch was (nobody at work did), but it was a Halloweeney theme nonetheless!
 When Halloween was over and I put the displays into the storeroom, I decided to put Blanche in the window of the room. Was pretty funny because for months after that, you could see Blanche in the window, and at night, you could see her silhouette in the window!
This went on til they finally cleared out the room! LOLOL

Favorite Albums: "Their Satanic Majesties' Request" by The Rolling Stones

Maybe you can blame it on me being really young when I first got it, (like 12-14 yrs old), but THEIR SATANIC MAJESTIES' REQUEST is probably my favorite of all the early Rolling Stones albums! 
While we all know that this album is the one labeled as "The album where the Stones tried to do Sgt Peppers", being a HUGE Beatles fan, rather than a deterrent, this labeling made me want to hear it even MORE! Growing up, I was DYING to get my hands on this album, the Colorful Psychedelic flicker-card cover ALONE made me want it bad! When I eventually saved up enough money to get it, I dove in head first and immersed myself in it, and I was NOT disappointed! The Stones' one and only "psychedelic phase" was as high as the moon and as trippy as a dream, I must have played that thing over and over again for weeks, getting into the music and staring at the strange, spacey artwork on the covers, gatefold and inside sleeves! 

 While not your usual Stones fare, I love all of these songs, from the well-known classics like "She's a Rainbow" and "2000 Light Years From Home"...

...the artsy minstrel sounding songs like "Lantern" and "Citadel", (How can these songs sound so folksy with those tasty Richards licks gracing them? Too awesome!)

...the super catchy and funky "Gomper", the Beatlesy rip-off "Why Don't We Sing This Song Together" and "On With the Show" (complete with Jagger trying to do his nasally Paul McCartney voice), and even the zany Bill Wyman tune "In Another Land"...gosh, even just typing these titles is taking me back to my teenage years locked in my room and spacing out listening to this album!

  Don’t get me wrong, I love ALL the Stones albums from the first Introduction LP to the intense 70’s albums like Exile On Main Street, down through Emotional Resuce, Dirty Work and later ones like Steel Wheels, etc, but there is really something special I hold in my heart for this one particular album!

The Who "Baba O' Riley"

My all-time favorite performance of Baba O'Riley", from the legendary "Kids Are Alright" Movie. Insanely powerful John Entwistle bass riff introduction, then when Pete jumps in blasting those incredible Townshend power chords on, the whole stage electrifies! Everyone's so into this performance and I love how Moonie always mugs when he knows the camera is on him!

Vanessa & Ralph Still in the Running on Amazing Race 20 (so Far)

I'm grateful to still have Vanessa and Ralph in the running here on Episode 6 of The Amazing Race 20. Not only is Vanessa the Sexiest racer in this Race (though in the above pic she looks less made up than usual, having swam underwater in the last roadblock), she keeps the faith with her hot and awesomely suggestive quotes such as these past episode's gems during a challenge where they had to find the magic apple hidden in a carload full of 'em:

Vanessa: (Jumping out of the trunk of the car after rooting around the apples for the clue) 

"I Hope That's the FIRST and LAST time I'll ever be in the trunk of a car" LOL

And later as a Man yells at them from the sidelines:

Ralph: “Either that guy is telling us to go faster, or he’s looking at Vanessa’s Melons.”

Vanessa: “I don’t think he can even SEE my Melons…But I AM going Commando!”

Well, maybe that GUY wasn't checking it out, but I certainly was! Hope this team can keep up as the Race progresses! They came in second to last this time...Oooh, that's cutting it close!