Quasar Sniffer

Ah, I did not realize it was streaming free. Awesome!

If anyone is interested, Rian Johnson just did a write-up for Letterboxd on 1970s musicals, including some we have covered! 'Hair,' however, is not included... https://letterboxd.com/rcjohnso/list/70s-musical-extravaganza/detail/

I guess another problem I have with getting behind the movie is that... the Vietnam War was objectively horrible, and the only characters who recognized that were these self-serving, myopic free-love-obsessed morons, but the most self-actualized character, Claude, is making a conscious choice to go. It's clear going to Vietnam isn't his first choice of how to spend his youth, but he doesn't go out of his way to avoid it. So if only idiots express any antipathy to war, where does the movie stand? Obviously, the military does not come off great, but we're exposed to its hypocrisy for much less screen time than the band of hippies.

What really bothered me about the ending is that Berger switching with Claude so he could have an afternoon with his friends is the only selfless thing he or any of the hippies do in the whole fucking movie. You know, the kind of charitable act that serves your fellow humans that hippie philosophy was supposed to be about. So of course it FUCKING KILLS HIM.

I think the movie was mostly even-handed with the hippies, but when the group was sort such a bunch of unfeeling dicks to Hud's fiance and her child, my reaction was "fuck these clowns." As much as I am a Big Time Leftist and abhor everything the Vietnam War stood for, I was not behind these dumb-dumbs. Sure, I hate authoritarian institutions represented by the military at the end, and I felt sorry for Claude's plight, but the whole madcap ending where Berger ends up going to Vietnam? That strained by sense of credulity even for a musical.

Thanks so much Cameron! I hope you enjoy it!

If, perchance, you are not enthusiastic about paying $20 to watch Vin Diesel win fights with CGI, and you are hankering for movie-based podcast content (I know there's a VERY REAL shortage of that, amirite?), might I suggest... listening to ME talk about one of my favorite movies? It might ease your sports withdrawal as well! A nerd and a Welshman talk about baseball movies.... https://www.film89.co.uk/the-film-89-podcast-episode-45-field-of-dreams-1989/

I went into this movie pretty neutral on The Monkees. I know they were a manufactured band, but like what was said before, so were a ton of respected performers. You think any of those girl groups who recorded with Psycho Asshole Phil Specter wrote their own songs? ANYWAY, I always viewed the TV show and their music as pretty safe, pre-packaged versions of the British Invasion, and it certainly wouldn't be the first or the last time entertainment companies tried to ride the coattails of a pop culture trend. So yeah, some catchy songs, some magazine covers. Cool. It's not really for me but I wish the Monkees and their fans the best. But THIS, man, this is NUTS. The intercutting of Vietnam War footage is fucking crazy in the context of the era. 1968 was the year of the Tet Offensive and most of America was still in favor of the war at the time. Somewhere in 1968, the mood really shifted on the conflict. According to Wikipedia, 'Head' started production in February of 1968, which means the Tet Offensive, which started on January 30th of that year, was in the minds of every American. For the band to position themselves in contrast, almost as if they were complicit in the same sort of media manipulation that led to the war, is pretty astonishing. Maybe it was inspired by drugs, maybe it was youthful exuberance and naivete, maybe the movie is a series of psychedelic skits (it CERTAINLY wouldn't be the first 1960s art film to do that), but I have to give them respect for actually putting this together and releasing it. I mean, fuck, Victor Mature, star of films directed by John Ford and Cecil B. DeMille, makes a few brief appearances, one about 30 seconds before Frank Zappa appears on a Hollywood backlot. This shit is crazy.

I've never seen Rock & Rule OR Head and they are both on my to-watch list. I look forward to discovering either film, but since we are doing Head, that is the one I shall view! Nice!

I think my issue with the new season of Veronica Mars was the same as my issue with everything after the first season; that is, I can't trust anything in the show, either in its plot or character development. Every time it seems like we reached a conclusion in a mystery or a character has made a moment of self-realization, there's a twist to pull the rug out from under us. So it seems like everything is a red herring, from the suspect list to the way Veronica deals with her love life. So I'm just constantly second-guessing everything I see, and that's just not a way to emotionally connect to a show, as I'm thinking about what the writing team might have been thinking as I'm listening to the dialogue.

And what weirds me out about this whole thing is that this is how Prince wanted us to see him! This is his movie, his story! He portrays himself as a troubled genius who is redeemed, not only for his petulance and disrespect to his fellow musicians, but also his physical and emotional abuse of the woman he loves. All because... he's the best club act in Minneapolis? No thanks. I mean, it's obviously REAL SHITTY that you grew up with a profoundly disturbed and abusive father, but I wish the movie did more to show him trying to turn away from that inherited trauma. Instead, he lets it take him over, but everything is ok at the end because "Purple Rain" is a sweet, sweet jam.

Agreed. And part of what kept me from sympathizing with The Kid is that his whole motivation for getting Apollonia's affections back or trying to make it up to her in some way was to help his music career. I think he knew she was talented and that she inspired him. Further, his personal feelings were dominated by jealousy because she left him for Morris, so while he may have regretted hitting her, he didn't feel the need to win her back or even want to make amends until he saw where Apollonia went after leaving him.

Totally, but it seemed like, to me, his MOST artistic song was the "Purple Rain" performance at the end. So then... does the audience and the club owner finally catch up to his genius?

I LIKE several Prince songs ("When Doves Cry" is definitely an all-time banger and I enjoy many other songs on the soundtrack), but I'm definitely not an out-and-out fan of The Purple One, so this one was difficult for me to get behind. Prince certainly has charisma as a performer, but he is NOT an actor. So seeing this guy, you know, hit his girlfriend and be a total primadonna prick to his bandmates, then have the film ask me to have sympathy for HIM? Not happening. Thankfully, the movie has a higher musical-performance-to-story-ratio than Rocky IV has montages, so that actually helps. Also, Prince is freqently told "you're losing it, kid" and Morris and the club owner talk about how "the kid doesn't have it anymore" right after Prince... performs a Prince song. But... it just seems like as intense and well-orchestrated a performance as any of the ones the audience sees as amazing. Are we supposed to be behind Prince in these moments, that his talent is unrecognized? If so, why do people all of the sudden think he's losing it during the middle of the film? If he really IS losing it, if his performance quality dips, how is that manifested? There is that one song that seems to be directed at Apollonia, which is pretty dickish, and he sort of storms off, which is also dickish, but it's not like the song is objectively bad or anything. Or am I wrong? If his performance quality WAS dipping, it would have been nice if he actually did incorporate some of the songs or song ideas his bandmates offered to try and improve the band, instead of shrugging them off like a petulant toddler told to share his action figures.

I guess I just mean, I had my say with my comment. But did the guy who had the Toons/Tunes comment have his say? Could we have just said, "it's T-U-N-E-S, my dude, because Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes was Warner Brothers's way of taking the piss out of Disney's "Silly Symphonies.""

I agree with both @gigi-tastic and @Cameron H. (they are very smart and it is just wise to agree with them), but even though I went on to clarify my comment further in the board pages, and engaged in debate with people who expressed their opinions in ways more eloquent than I did, it felt like the "fuck you" that I got was much more playful and funny than what the callers get sometimes because I had a complete thought that was then read by Paul. It's just easier to riff off of a full statement than a fuzzy phone call, and so the riffs spawned of of the message board comments are usually just funnier because we put in more work in with our comments. The Marvin the Martian thing is a perfect example.

Paul did NOT like my perspective that Disney films are also a commercial enterprise. I got fuck-you'd pretty definitively. Yikes. I laffed. And was that Marvin the Martian phone comment, about Marvin being impartial because his is both from space and a Looney Tune, another example of a call almost directly quoting a message board comment? I feel like I did hear it before (or at least read it)

I like the way you think, Mr. Cam Bert. This is another example of why this movie is, well, dumb. At least in its plot. The Moron Mountain story would have just made more sense if it was maybe a Huge Success on its home planet and they were trying to expand their empire to Earth, figuring to kidnap oddballs and celebrities for their attractions. Their ability to absorb the talent of the most talented beings from whatever planet they visited might be a part of that as well. Maybe guests, human customers, could pay exorbitant amounts to actually absorb Jordan's talent for an hour, then humiliate him in one-on-one basketball, Or maybe a train full of customers could pay to experience a little bit of it, in a sort of "Basketball The Ride" sort of experience. The Looney Tunes could maybe be a part of the Moron Mountain of Earth's Freak Show, a humiliating fate for so celebrated a cartoon brand.

I'm well-aware of the original audience for Looney Tunes. I was being facetious. I actually think the idea of what makes content "kid-friendly" has been so sanitized and codified over the years. I adored Looney Tunes as a kid, even if so many of their gags riffed off of, say, Richard Wagner music or a Peter Lorre impression. We don't give kids enough credit. Everything from Looney Tunes to Labyrinth: give me more of that! And yeah, I'm also very aware of the difference between animated films as a medium, the Disney animated movie as a cultural phenomenon, and the marketing machine behind all of it. I myself am not a child. But I just don't think 'Space Jam' is any more of a blatant commercial than 'Frozen 2,' for example. Both are made to sell merchandise and soundtracks. I'm NOT saying the individual artists, fllmmakers, actors, and all the other workers on those films don't strive to make a product of as high a quality as possible, only that Warner Bros. is not somehow more egregious than Disney. Hell, a movie like 'Jurassic Park' was probably helped A LOT by the studio knowing of the merchandising potential, and I'm never gonna say that isn't a good movie, nor do I regret buying any dino-related toys modeled after (or because of) that movie. George Lucas was famously able to secure the merchandising rights for his little 'Star Wars' films, and the only thing that had a greater influence on my childhood than 'Star Wars' (and possibly 'Star Trek') was my parents for actually procreating.

I think this is interesting in the context of Lola being a Looney Tunes character. The classic versions of Bugs, Daffy, etc. (especially the antagonist characters) are habitually self-centered, if not narcissistic. They are content to humiliate their opponents, deriving pleasure and comedy from their victories, with their end goal being to be left alone. The idea of actually stopping, say, Elmer Fudd from killing other sentient Tunes is totally against their nature. They actively turn his guns TOWARDS each other (see: Duck Season vs. Rabbit Season). Lola would be much more at home in the world of Tiny Toon Adventures or Animaniacs, where it was far easier to find altruism and friendship among the main characters.

I recognize this movie is a commercial, but aren't almost all kids movies, especially animated ones? Artistic merits notwithstanding, a movie like WALL-E presents itself as a cautionary fable, warning us about the dangers of rampant consumerism, cultural complacency, and excess waste, all the while generating thousands of individual products with adorable robots, complete with Disney and Pixar branding, all of which create their own waste. Don't get me wrong, WALL-E is a beautiful film, but at least Space Jam is honest about its blatant consumerism. It's not hiding behind a cute, doughy-eyed Pixar creation. No one is telling you can go "To Infinity And Beyond," as long as you buy this $25 action figure, they're just trying to get you to buy some fucking Gatorade.

In all fairness, the sexualizing of Looney Tunes characters has a long and distinguished history. This is classy stuff, people! And for kids!

Gun to my head, "Ashes to Ashes" is probably my favorite Bowie song as well. But one thing that always fascinated me about Bowie is he influence on collaborators and how they influenced him, from the 1960s until his death. I think a perfect encapsulation of that is the ABSOLUTELY FUCKING PERFECT song "I'm Afraid of Americans" and the paranoia-soaked video that accompanied it. I still feel this song and video. Real hard. The end coda of "God is an American" still gives me chills, as Bowie's voice is played out and overtaken by the NIN-ish keyboards. It doesn't hurt that I still love Mr. Reznor like I am a 16-year-old Angsty Boi.

The David Bowie as "self-destructive egotistical rock star jerk" interested me because a comic book recently took that dynamic and set it in the 80s. In the series GUNNING FOR HITS, a washed-up/sell-out version of Bowie manipulates an agent and a young aspiring rock band to make a comeback. I think it's fascinating that instead of straight up biopics, we've made these villainous versions of Bowie, a musician who is a hero to possibly more people than any other musician of the last 50 years. It's like his legacy is so grandiose and unapproachable, we have to make him even more fallible to fathom his mythos. Even the creator of GUNNING FOR HITS talked about how Bowie was a hero his, and he even designed the first boxed set of Bowie's work.

I think the Dolls are interesting because they are more proto-punk than anything, and as so much of Glam came out of England, they had more musically in common with Iggy and the Stooges or The Mc5 (who were Detroit-based acts), but just in drag. It's another example of how sometimes musical genres aren't clear-cut. Glam was much more of a visual aesthetic and way of promoting yourself. I mean, T-Rex was just a great hard rock band. The only thing that made them Glam was the glitter and fabulous feather boas Marc Bolan wore.