Michael's Musings

Starman
Michael Shinafelt

"There's a starman waiting in the sky
He'd like to come and meet us
But he thinks he'd blow our minds"

This past week two things have occupied the corners of my mind, David Bowie and Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits. How are they related to my psyche, each other and the world around me? I really don't know. What I do know is both of these things take me to a happy place and in these trying times that's the best medicine there is, time to carry on...

Dug last night's RHOBH watch party. It was fun having two RHONY, Luann de Lesseps and Sonja Morgan commenting on the women from BH.

"Stand By Your Man" sounds better when Tammy Wynette sings it, so does "Justified and Ancient" for that matter.

Life Hack: If you stop weighing yourself, you will stop gaining weight

Those calling out God's name on Sunday morning are not as fun as those who call it out on Saturday night

It's not up to women to fix misogyny, even if it was they wouldn't get paid as much as men to do it

Billie Eilish unfollowed everyone on Instagram, now my  life is complete

May the bridges I burn light the way 

The two top grossing movies in the US at present are Jurassic Park & Jaws: Eff Jaws that movie scares the crap out of me. Eff Jurassic Park because that movie is underwhelming.

Woman Crush of the Week - Marilyn Monroe in The Misfits. The best surprise is no surprise! 

Travel all roads, leave no questions unasked 

I've been dreaming in Haiku's of late

John Cena just ran naked through my mind 

For some reason the Grim Reaper and Florida are synonymous to me

Once upon a time there was a bag of jellybeans...

Go into the light with me at -
https://www.instagram.com/michaelshinafelt/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/MShinafelt 

Hump Day & Chill

Classic Playgirl
Ernie Langeberg

It's that time of the week again Minions where we take some me time and Hump Day & Chill. One of the things I have always loved about Tye Briggs Favorite Hunks & Other Things is his interviews with men who have graced the pages of Playgirl Magazine.

Tye always manages to provide an interesting, informative and entertaining look into how the male in question ended up being propositioned to take it all off for the publication and their thoughts and feelings about why they did it.

Well for today's Hump Day & Chill fest we have Peter's Story as part of the Classic Playgirl history. Not to give too much away, but his story tells the tale of how a University Psychology class assignment ended up becoming an offer to appear in the magazine.

Even though there are no photos of Peter with his story, there are plenty of other images of man flesh from the Classic Playgirl era, four to be exact, including Ernie Langeberg pictured above.

"Yes" you read that correctly Minions, there are four studs for you to choose from for your Hump Day & Chill enjoyment.

Get to it! Click on the link below, these guys can't Hump Day & Chill alone...

https://favoritehunks.blogspot.com/2020/06/classic-playgirl-peters-story.html

CRSHD

CRSHD

Available on VOD & EST August 4, 2020
Available on DVD August 11, 2020

"Irrepressibly inventive and often impulsively unrestrained, Emily Cohn's CRSHD guilelessly celebrates digital youth culture and its sometimes messy inconsistency with abundant energy and attitude." - Hollywood Reporter

VIEW TRAILER

End-of-the-year celebrations are underway at a small liberal arts college in Ohio. The night's main event? A CRUSH PARTY. The rules? Submit your crush and they get an invite. Or if you're "crushed," you also get an invite.

Self-conscious freshman IZZY ALDEN is still a virgin and the crush party is her last chance to do something about it before summer. ANUKA and FIONA, Izzy's best friends, help Izzy on her mission to "bone" as they pursue romantic interests of their own.

In millennial fashion, social media plays mediator as the girls chase their crushes in real life and online.

Executive produced by Judy McGrath, former CEO of MTV Networks, CRSHD debuted at Tribeca in 2019 and played TIFF New Wave in February 2020.

"Winning and sweet... Very funny." - New York Times

"A wonderful new spin on the college sex comedy." - Hollywood News

"Deeply hilarious!" - Garage / VICE

"Sure to make you laugh!" - The Playlist

Waxing Nostalgic

Together Again
Bruce Willis & Demi Moore

Yesterday was Father's Day thus a lot of celebrities and common folk took to Social Media posting photos to pay tribute to that special man in their lives.

Well whilst hitting the round-up of said photos I came across this current one of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore. Captioned: "Happy Father's Day, Bruce! Your kids are so lucky to have you," 

This took me back to when they were actually married for eleven years, they were a Hollywood power couple starring in many movies that brought them both big paychecks. In fact Moore became the highest paid actress (at the time) in film history receiving a then unheard of $12.5 million for Striptease. Willis made as much as $20 million at the time depending on the role.

However this is not what I will remember their legacy for, what I will look back on is a small film they did together that Demi produced called Mortal Thoughts. Her is the synopsis for it:

"Mortal Thoughts is a low-key thriller revolving around the relationship between two best friends who are involved in the death of one of their husbands. The movie unfolds as the events leading to a confession are shown in flashback. Joyce (Glenne Headly) is married to the abusive, unfaithful James (Bruce Willis). During an outing at a carnival, James is killed, and Joyce and her best friend Cynthia (Demi Moore) try to cover up the murder."

Of course it was so much more than this, as legendary film critic Roger Ebert puts it:

"There is another level to Mortal Thoughts than either the guilt or innocence of the characters, or the wit with which Rudolph portrays their world. It is the level on which ordinary people cut themselves loose from ordinary morality."

Ebert nailed the truth of this film and this is the reason I love it! Make your day a good one!

Mortal Thoughts on Rotten Tomatoes:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mortal_thoughts  

Just Because...Jon Hamm

Who's Your Daddy?
Jon Hamm

Just Because he fills out his sweats nicely, Just Because it's Father's Day (think about it, but not too much) and Just Because he's bringing Bucket Hats back, here's Jon Hamm leaving a liquor store with what looks like an energy drink.

Happy Father's Day to all of you Daddy's out there (now do you get why Jon is my poster guy for it???) - Anyway nothing beats a Hamm sighting in sweatpants, although it does not look like Jon is up to his freeballing ways from this shot. Which is a bummer, I know he got a lot of attention for it in the press when Mad Men was on the air. Perhaps he decided to tie the Kraken down to avoid the unwanted(?) focus it drew.

Whatever the case a nice casual photo of him out and about is always a welcome sight.

Seize the day Minions!

Jon on IMDb -
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0358316/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0  

Juneteenth Block Party Today!

Danielia Cotton
Photo:
Chia Messina 

DANIELIA COTTON TO JOIN TULSA’s NATIONAL JUNETEENTH BLOCK PARTY

WITH SPECIAL PERFORMANCE OF ‘A DIFFERENT WAR’

Riding a new wave of critical acclaim from A Different War, her incredibly timely and most politically charged album to date, widely heralded blues-rocker DANIELIA COTTON has risen again into the light, fiercely and defiantly, to join a star-studded lineup for Tulsa’s national Juneteenth Block Party, a virtual event to accompany

on-the-ground celebrations happening over the weekend. The Block Party will begin streaming tomorrow (Saturday, June 20) at 6 p.m. CT at www.tulsablockparty.com.

The Juneteenth Block Party event arrives as Cotton enters a “new normal” touring mode with her “Virtual Album Release Tour.” The first stop on the tour will be Friday, June 26 at Sellersville Theater, 24 West Temple Ave., Sellersville, PA. Show time is 8 p.m. More dates will be announced shortly.

The Full Livestream Concert at Sellersville Theater on June 26 will be streamed LIVE on the Sellersville Theater Facebook page. This is a PAY AS YOU PLEASE Event. All contributions will go to support both Danielia Cotton and Sellersville Theater. Payment information will be available while watching the show.

The Juneteenth Block Party was created to recognize Juneteenth, the holiday that marks the abolition of slavery in the United States and celebrate the culture of African American communities in Tulsa and around the country. The Block Party lineup will include conversations, stories, messages of hope, and musical performances from a number of prominent Tulsans and beyond, and special celebrity guests. Organizers promise the Juneteenth Block Party to be “the moment this country deserves for an exceptional holiday weekend.”

Cotton joins a stellar list of confirmed participants including Alfre Woodard, Sen. Kamala Harris, NBA Houston Rockets’ Russell Westbrook, creator of HBO’s Watchmen Damon Lindelof, former Attorney General Eric Holder, former Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick, Emmy-award winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson, Biden 2020 Sr. Advisors Karine Jean-Pierre and Symone Sanders, Emmy nominated comedian Baratunde and more celebrity guests. 

Cotton will be performing an acoustic version, on piano, of “A Different War,” the title track from her latest album, which finds the woman whose music is “soulful enough to fill a revival tent” (The New York Times) and whose voice gives her songs “stunning power” (No Depression) speaking to these extraordinary times by unloading her sin while the world around her is gripped in a turbulent spin.

She will be joined for this special live performance by prominent Bronx hip-hop artist Mickey Factz, reprising his guest appearance on the original album track. “A Different War” examines how the reality of people of color getting called into battle as a result of being marginalized informs their entire existence. The song also urges us to press ahead because of the ongoing need for substantive change.

In a deeply personal and moving editorial she titled “Fade to Black” just published by SWAAY.com, Cotton confronts her own upbringing as a biracial woman in a predominantly white upper middle class New Jersey suburb. Read it here.

Cotton frames A Different War by confronting race, gender, and wealth − deeply personal and pervasive issues that have plagued folks like her for an eternity.

Calling the album, “stunning and stirring,” American Songwriter praised A Different War for “an uncompromising urgency that transforms its songs into anthems for our times.” Including the album among its Best Bets in “The Hotness” Summer Issue, BUST Magazine raved: “A Different War is an album bursting with soulful blues rock, delivered with steely confidence. … Whether she’s wailing Janis Joplin-style on ‘Cheap High’ or declaring ‘I was not born a man, but I can do anything that he can,’ on ‘She Too,’ she’s in control, and she’s our kind of belter.”

Adding to the praise for A Different War, MediaNews Group syndicate was impressed at how Cotton’s “consistent ability to overcome pain and express it through music shines a light on the issues of the day and shows the world what it's like to continue to fight.” San Francisco Classical Voice chimed in, saying “I would really encourage you to take a listen to” the new album.

Throughout her career, the longtime New Yorker from Hopewell, NJ, has drawn praise from the New York Times, Billboard, the Los Angeles Times, NPR, and USA Today, among many others. She continues to inhabit a song, turning it inside and out to create transcendent music and lyrics, and carry us higher and higher with her in her musical flights.

A Different War finds the gutsy New Yorker swimming through the tumultuous social issues of racism and greed, and the tempestuous waters of love and relationships. These are songs deeply rooted in the protest anthems of yesterday but built for the current state of our world. A multi-racial, gospel-fueled, Jewish blues-rocker who believes in the power of womanhood, Cotton grew up in a predominantly white New Jersey community as one of just seven black kids in her high school. She has survived cancer and the tragic loss of twins at birth, only to bounce back and finally welcome a daughter in 2018. Cotton’s consistent ability to overcome pain and express it through music shines a light on the issues of the day and shows the world what it's like to fight “A Different War.”

A Different War is a true collaboration with some of the most talented musicians and technicians in the business. From Aaron Comess (Spin Doctors, Joan Osborne, Edie Brickell) on drums, Ben Butler (Sting, George Michael, Chris Botti) on guitar, and Andy Hess (Gov’t Mule, Black Crowes) on bass, to young gun guitarist Emmanuel Rossillo working his first major studio project, the record resonates with innovation and flare. The finishing touches of the brilliant mix provided by Dave O’Donnell (James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, John Mayer) and the mastering of Greg Calbi (numerous hits over the past 20 years) make this record a true meeting of the best of the best.

The evidence is clear on A Different War that DANIELIA COTTON continues to evolve and challenge herself as a musician. Fifteen years since her breakout as an Artist to Watch by influential Philadelphia public radio outlet WXPN, Cotton remains a true indie artist fighting for independence – the space to create her own sound and an audience that would journey with her.

Available NOW at Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, and where music is consumed on-line.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Have A Good Time (But Get Out Alive)

“Few bands offered up material as gritty, rich, and poignant as Pittsburgh’s own The Iron City Houserockers. … [An] epic musical milestone. … Given the current world pandemic, there’s a modern-day relevance to the message of the title track and the album itself. Get Out Alive! has always been a record of hope, home, solidarity, community, strength, and love - themes that are as important today as they were 40 years ago. 5 STARS”

- Goldmine

The physical edition of the greatly expanded 40^th anniversary deluxe reissue of Have a Good Time (But Get Out Alive), the sophomore album originally hailed by Rolling Stone as “a new American classic” from beloved Pittsburgh rocker Joe Grushecky and his gritty, blue-collar outfit the Iron City Houserockers, arrives TODAY (June 19) on CD and vinyl amid a mounting new groundswell of attention.

A holy trinity of rock and roll royalty united to help oversee the recording, as Mick Ronson (David Bowie), Ian Hunter (Mott The Hoople) and Steven Van Zandt (Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny) combined with co-producers the Slimmer Twins (Steve Popovich Sr. & Marty Mooney) and the Iron City Houserockers to create one of rock’s great lost classics. Their cohesive efforts − as producers, arrangers and players − will finally be rediscovered as an entirely new listening experience on CD and vinyl when Have a Good Time (But Get Out Alive) is released by fabled indie label, Cleveland International Records. The remastered two-CD set includes a bonus disc with 16 previously unreleased tracks of demos and other rarities. The new vinyl edition will include a download card of those same 16 tracks to go with a vinyl replica of the original album. The digital package is on sale NOW and streaming here. Order the vinyl and physical CD here. Order the exclusive Iron City Houserockers Bundle Pack at www.clevelandinternational.com.

The presence of Hunter, Ronson and Van Zandt, says the Houston Press, sets “this project apart,” and “gives the whole record a sort of Pittsburgh/New Jersey/London amalgamation vibe.” MediaNews Group called this chapter in Grushecky’s four-decade career “one of his shining moments.”

Little Steven’s Underground Garage celebrated Digital Release Day with a “Coolest Conversations” album spotlight, as Grushecky spoke with the Mighty Manfred on Sirius XM. Ultimate Classic Rock hosted an exclusive Track Premiere of the bonus disc demo version of “Hypnotized (A Work in Progress),” featuring Hunter and Ronson, and called the new release “cool stuff.”

Iron City Houserockers

American Songwriter, in an interview with Grushecky, hails Have A Good Time (But Get Out Alive) as “a forgotten gem of a record, a time capsule of frenetic ‘80s energy and lyrics about home that hit home, performed by the toughest, tightest band from the ‘work hard, play hard’ working-class streets of Pittsburgh." The magazine adds that the bonus disc not only “documents each song's evolution,” but “showcases how Grushecky and the band took it up a notch when the 'record' button was pressed."

Goldmine, in a new five-star review, proclaims the album an “epic musical milestone,” and placed it in the context of the current world pandemic, noting the how “few bands offered up material as gritty, rich, and poignant as Pittsburgh’s own The Iron City Houserockers” and the “modern-day relevance to the message of the title track and the album itself. Get Out Alive! has always been a record of hope, home, solidarity, community, strength, and love - themes that are as important today as they were 40 years ago.”

Adds Midwest Record: “Anyone that wants to rock will salute this. Amazingly heady still after 40 years of sitting in limbo, waiting for the sky to fall.”

Forty years since The Iron City Houserockers’ willingness to let Ronson, Hunter and Van Zandt reshape their initial ideas in the studio proved prophetic, and the songs they recorded for the 1980 release put down roots that stretched far outside of Pittsburgh. Greil Marcus, in The Village Voice, said Have a Good Time (But Get Out Alive) was “the strongest album an American band has made this year” and “proves the Iron City Houserockers are the best hard rock band in the country.” All Music Guide marveled at the new album’s power surge, saying the band “landed with the impact of a Louisville slugger connecting with a fastball” and crediting Grushecky for songwriting and lead vocals that “seethe with a furious passion that's never less than convincing. … The total commitment of his performance, delivered with the conviction of a man fighting for his life, brings these stories to vivid, sweaty life.”

Have a Good Time (But Get Out Alive) is listed as one of the top eight Essential Heartland Rock records alongside the likes of Bob Seger's Night Moves, and John Mellencamp's Scarecrow,

and features many of the Houserockers' signature tunes, including "Pumping Iron,” "Junior's Bar," and "Have A Good Time.” During a 1981 live radio concert in Boston, rabid fans can be heard screaming requests for “Pumping Iron,” an anthem Grushecky penned as a tribute to his home city, and which he still usually plays with Bruce Springsteen when they perform together.

As Hunter fondly remembers: “Joe and the Houserockers were and are an actual rock and roll band. So many 'rock and roll' bands are not real − they just look and act like they are − and fool people most of the time. These guys are for real − and what a lovely man Joe is.”

In the liner notes, Grushecky offers a remarkably concise analysis of the record that emerged: “We had great songs and the band was smoking,” he writes. “We all knew something special was happening. The results were a mixture of Pittsburgh rock and roll, Jersey Shore savvy and soul, and English mystic and muscle. Add a dash of Cleveland moxie and an anything goes attitude and a legendary album was born.” 

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