Memorial Day 2022

Top Gun: Maverick
Tom Cruise & Jennifer Connelly 

With the not unexpected success of Top Gun: Maverick this Memorial Day weekend I thought I would leave you with this image from it. Something about it captures the key aspects and the vibes that this particular day of remembrance gives me. 

No, I'll never explain again...Enjoy your day Minions!!!

Memorial Day on Wikipedia -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Day  

Just Because...2 Broke Girls

Serving Laughs
Kat Dennings & Beth Behrs 

For some reason of late I have been watching reruns of 2 Broke Girls every chance I get. State of the world issues may have something to do with it I'm sure. Also it's one of the funniest, most entertaining sitcoms ever made. This is coming from a person who, in general loathes them.

What I love about this show is, while it's politically incorrect and many of the jokes are the characters making fun of each other. It's all in a good natured, caring way. NONE of it is mean spirited in the least.

Not to mention Kat Dennings & Beth Behrs are gold together, along with the rest of the awesomely talented cast!!!

I have serious doubts 2BG would get a network greenlight in the current climate. So let's be grateful it doesn't have to and that it exists.

Like the saying goes: Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened 😊

Also be grateful for syndication and reruns that allow us to watch something this fun, over and over again...

2 Broke Girls on Wikipedia -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Broke_Girls  

Saturday Sinema: Forbidden Planet

"The 1956 film, “Forbidden Planet”, was a cinematic watershed. A culmination and refinement of the science fiction films that came before, it set a new benchmark in the genre, influencing just about every sci-fi film that came afterwards. It was the bridge between the previously seen giant insects, costumed aliens, and rickety spaceships, and the super realistic science fiction films of today. You can clearly see its influence in landmark productions such as the original “Star Trek” TV series, and the “Star Wars” films (and the creators of both have cited this film as inspiration). “Forbidden Planet” was cutting-edge in just about every way, including its Academy Award nominated special effects, and its electronic score. This classic film is fun, mesmerizing, and thrilling - everything you would want from a sci-fi film."

Want more? Click on the link below to my buddy Jay Jacobson's Classic Movie Blog...

Happy Viewing Minions!

https://www.jaysclassicmovieblog.com/post/35-forbidden-planet-1956

People Are People - R.I.P. Andy "Fletch" Fletcher

"Last time with Fletch - Sofia, Bulgaria in 2013. Delta Machine Tour. RIP Andy. #depechemode #andyfletcher. Devastated." - Karen Castrischer Stegall

Sad news, yesterday Andy "Fletch" Fletcher the keyboard player for the legendary Depeche Mode passed away. One of my BFF's Karen Castrischer Stegall is what you would call a Devotee. She would follow them while they were on the road from city to city, country to country.

While I am someone who was simply under the spell of their music. Indeed it was a sad day for fans of any type.

Here is the band issued statement:

I am going to leave you with a song they did back in 1984 that is more relevant now than it was then - People Are People...R.I.P. Andy

Michael's Musings

Curiouser And Curiouser!
Michael Shinafelt

"Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." - Alice, Alice In Wonderland 

This quote from Alice In Wonderland used to seem far fetched. Well not so much anymore. The world we live in has indeed gone mad. 

Seeing six impossible things before breakfast is now the norm. Thus Alice In Wonderland was ahead of it's time. Speaking of time I'm running late, for a very important...time to move forward.

Everyone looks better with a corn dog in their mouth, the more you know

The trolls kept me in the dark, they held me down and fed me kale 

Beto O'Rourke = Good Trouble 

Erika Jayne can still afford a downsized glam squad???

Their eyes had no reason for being that blue

People are far too judgmental these days, I can tell just by looking at them...

Remember only wine can make everyone happy, not you

I'm too unverified for this sh!t

Woman Crush of the Week - Stevie Nicks! One of my all time greats, not to mention today is her Birthday!

Be very, very quite I'm hunting windmills and chasing waterfalls

Guess what I admitted to not knowing, knock yourself out Minions!!!

I want to play a tone deaf villain 

Unhealthy relationship expectations? You can always blame Nicholas Sparks

2022 it was the best of times and the worst of ______ fill in the blank, give it a name

What's your answer? Spill the tea with me here...

https://www.instagram.com/michaelshinafelt/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/MShinafelt  

Hump Day & Chill

Anthony Perkins

Since I've been hanging out on the Universal Studios Lot of late. I have been under the influence of movie magic. That and the Alfred Hitchcock "Get Ready For Your Close-Up!" image I saw posted inside one of the buildings has me thinking a Hump Day & Chill in honor of Anthony Perkins is in order.

I've always found Perkins quite sexy, there's that handsome boyish exterior that conveys a certain All American innocence that masks a freak flag that is ready to fly at a moments notice. 

Not to mention Anthony happens to star in three of my all time favorite films: Psycho, Pretty Poison & Crimes of Passion. "Yes" in all of them he use his seemingly "normal" facade to mask some really twisted stuff!

Hey, I like bad boys who have a pretty exterior but give off a vibe that you just know there is a lot more going on beneath the surface fer sure.

So here is to the late, not to mention great Anthony Perkins.

It's time to Hump Day & Chill Minions!!!

Anthony Perkins on Wikipedia -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Perkins

The Las Vegas Story

THE GUN CLUB'S 1984 CLASSIC THE LAS VEGAS STORY IS BACK AS DELUXE TWO-                    CD/DVD AND DOUBLE-VINYL REISSUES VIA BLIXA SOUNDS

 

Both the CD and LP editions come with a bonus disc of live tracks and home movies capturing the band on the road.

Street date June 17, 2022  

 

With a howling and unholy mix of punk rock and the blues, Jeffrey Lee Pierce and The Gun Club exploded on the L.A. club scene in the early '80s. By 1984, the band had gone through a few lineup changes and expanded their musical palette to deliver The Las Vegas Story, their most diverse effort to date.

 

Now the album is back as a super deluxe two-CD/DVD and double-vinyl set, containing a digitally remastered version of the original 11-track album produced by Jeff Eyrich. Both the vinyl and CD versions feature a bonus disc with 10 live tracks recorded at Scorgie's in Rochester, New York on August 8, 1984. The CD package includes a DVD of rare footage of the band both on and off stage. This isn't your typical high-gloss concert footage, but rather appropriately rough and raw footage that'll make you feel as if you're watching the iconic band in a club. The LP will include an exclusive download link for the video footage featured on the DVD. 

 

The Gun Club

For The Las Vegas Story, Pierce's original Gun Club co-conspirator guitarist Kid Congo Powers returned to the fold after quitting The Cramps to find that Pierce had now become an accomplished guitarist in his own right. Original drummer Terry Graham also was back behind the kit, with his former Bags bandmate Patricia Morrison recruited to fill the bass slot vacated by Rob Ritter (who coincidentally had played guitar in the Bags alongside Morrison and Graham). This is the only Gun Club album to feature this classic lineup.

 

The CD version includes a 24-page booklet with liner notes by Terry Graham, Kid Congo Powers and Patricia Morrison as well as producer Jeff Eyrich, and guest musicians Dave Alvin and Phast Phreddie Patterson. It also includes rare photos and ephemera. The LP version, housed in a gatefold package, also includes those liner notes, photos and ephemera.

 

The Las Vegas Story was originally released by Chris Stein's Animal Records imprint, awarded to him by Chrysalis Records for Blondie's huge commercial success. (The album is dedicated to Blondie singer Debbie Harry). It was recorded on the band's home turf of Hollywood, California at the famed Ocean Way Studios with Eyrich after the band's original wish list of Tom Verlaine, John Cale, Mitch Easter, David Lee Roth and Vanity 6 didn't pan out. With credits including T-Bone Burnett and the Plimsouls, Eyrich was more than capable and captured the band's raw sound in the off-hours at a discount rate, while more established stars Stevie Nicks and Ry Cooder were also working in the studios.

 

"Jeff Eyrich actually had a very good influence on us – and brought out different things in us. He didn’t poo-poo our ideas – like doing 'My Man’s Gone Now,'" Kid Congo writes in the liner notes. The George Gershwin-DuBose Heyward-penned classic from Porgy and Bess is one of two covers on the album. The other is a haunting take of Pharoah Sanders and Leon Thomas' "The Creator Has a Master Plan." And while Verlaine wasn't available to serve as producer, Congo and Pierce, with his newfound guitar prowess, channeled Television in the country-flavored original "My Dreams." Elsewhere, Pierce shows off his slide-guitar playing and improved songwriting. "In 1984, Jeffrey could rightfully call himself a singer-songwriter-guitarist, now an even more capable writer and performer," Graham writes in the liner notes.

 

The Las Vegas Story was recorded the year Ronald Reagan was re-elected to a second term in the White House and the Olympics had returned to Los Angeles for the first time in more than 50 years. "All the good things that we liked about Los Angeles were being swept away -- all the good dirt was being swept away," Powers writes. "I feel The Las Vegas Story captures the feeling of disgust with that."

 

That disgust yielded some incredible results. "I am extremely proud of The Las Vegas Story album," Powers added. "Not only did it mark my musical reunification with the very missed Jeffrey Lee Pierce, it marked so many possibilities for the future of our musical adventures."

 

Captured for posterity are those possibilities in the grooves of The Las Vegas Story, a musical tale well worth revisiting again.