5 hours well spent.

Slither (1973)

My second favorite movie of all time. Coming to DVD finally.

I can't wait — even though there's a 16mm print of it sitting at home.

This Is Not Expendable.

Production art by Malcolm F. Brown from John Ford's They Were Expendable (1945), my favorite of his non-Western films.

And here's Ford and Wayne (and DP Joseph H. August?) doing the real thing.

Happy Birthday, Mom.

A visual feast.

Of audio equipment.

You REALLY gotta see this: Wagon Master (1950)

I don't mean to go spending your money, but if you haven't ordered your copy of Wagon Master, you need to get to it. Here, I'll save you all the looking — get it here.

It's a beautiful DVD. First class. And, of course, it's one of John Ford's best.

All the DVD reviews out there cover how simple, light and unpretentious it is, playing almost like a Western fairy tale and looking very much like the silent Westerns Ford had made (he'd return to this stripped-down "silent" look for The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance).

What's weird to me is that the badguys, the Cleggs, rarely get a mention. I saw this thing a thousand times growing up (like yesterday's Hellfire), and I always thought the Cleggs were evil incarnate — an Old West version of the freak family in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

They scared me. Bad. And as a result, I don't usually agree with a lot of the analysis of this great film. Masterpiece? Without doubt. Unpretentious? Sure. Beautiful? Absolutely. But those Cleggs, they throw bright and cheery right out the window — and dump in a big bucket of Menace.

You gotta see this: Hellfire (1949).

Republic's Hellfire (1949) — a family favorite I've seen a million times — is pitifully hard to find, though it used to show up on The Westerns Channel every once in a while.

It's a terrific movie — in wonderful, weird-looking Trucolor — with gambler Bill Elliott trying to fulfill a promise to build a church — without resorting to the violence he's accustomed to. He decides to do a little bounty hunting to raise the money, and runs into a number of unsavory characters along the way.

Paul Fix: For a Bible-toter, you're pretty handy with a six-shooter.

Bill Elliott: It kinda bothers me, too. Seems like the only kind of sermon I can make folks listen to.

It also stars my all-time favorite actress: Marie Windsor. You may know her from Kubrick's The Killing (1956), The Narrow Margin (1952), Abbott & Costello Meet The Mummy (1955), Bounty Hunter (1954) with Randolph Scott, a few John Wayne movies and other great stuff. She always said Hellfire was one of her personal favorites, which is good enough for me.

Interesting weird little note: H.B. Warner plays the old preacher, Brother Joseph, whose death sends Elliott on his quest to build the church. Back in 1927, Warner was Jesus in The King Of Kings. He's also one of the bridge-playing Hollywood fossils in Sunset Boulevard (1950).

The bird is the word!

Just got this from Sundazed Music:

Beloved midwest garage-rock kings and Sundazed recording artists the Trashmen will perform their FIRST-EVER New York-area shows, on October 23 at Southpaw in Brooklyn and October 24 at Maxwell's in Hoboken.

The seminal foursome—original members Tony Andreason, Dal Winslow and Bob Reed, with Tony's brother Mark Andreason taking over for the late Steve Wahrer on drums—will deliver such immortal Trashmen classics as "A-Bone," "Tube City," "King Of The Surf," "My Woodie" and the bigger-than-life anthem "Surfin' Bird."

Hard as it may be to believe, these shows mark the first time that the Trashmen have played in the New York City area. According to Dal Winslow, "In the early '60s, we played a club in New Jersey and around the Finger Lakes region, but we never hit New York City. It's been a long tome coming, like 40 years, and we're really looking forward to it!"

As a bonus these shows coincide with the WFMU Record Fair at the Manhattan Pavillion, where the Sundazed booth will, as always, be supplying smashing sounds to satisfied shoppers!

Don't miss the opportunity to see the Trashmen live at these venues!:

Friday Oct. 23rd Southpaw 125 5th Ave., Brooklyn, NY

Sat. Oct. 24th Maxwell's 1039 Washington St.,. Hoboken, NJ

Go ahead, make my movie.

Here's a couple pictures of Clint Eastwood at work. First up, Dirty Harry (1971). Seems to be the quarry scene at the end. Is that the great Don Siegel behind the camera in the floppy hat?

Next is High Plains Drifter (1973), which Clint both starred in and directed. This film seems to be going through a bit of a reappraisal lately, which it deserves. Throughout, you can really see the influences of Eastwood's key directors, Don Siegel and Sergio Leone. Who needs film school when you can watch those guys at work? And why hasn't Dee Barton's score ever been released?

(Both images were found somewhere on the Internet, a long time ago.)

A very good, but sorta weird, night at the movies.

I never woulda thought of these as a double feature.

Evidently, Paramount did.

Wouldn't you like to head to Reno in a camper with Kim Novak?

One of the best Fifties crime films, and one of my all-time favorite movies, is coming on DVD — 5 Against The House (1955).

Directed by Phil Karlson — an absolute master of this sort of gritty, nasty stuff — it stars Brian Keith, Kim Novak and Guy Madison. It's all about some Korean War vets who rent a camper trailer and head to Reno for a big casino heist.

It's one of the films in the upcoming DVD set Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol. 1. The other pictures are The Big Heat (directed by Fritz Lang), The Lineup (from Don Siegel), Murder By Contract and The Sniper.

You can't go wrong with this thing, people.

Crappy-looking video of one of the greatest things ever.

Here's The Byrds on Playboy After Dark back in September of 1968. They do "You Ain't Going Nowhere" and "This Wheel's On Fire."

By this point, Roger McGuinn was the only original member. Here, he's backed up by Clarence White on guitar, Gene Parsons on drums and John York on bass.

Watch and listen to Clarence giving his B-bender Telecaster a workout. Amazing stuff.

Wanna see Charles Bronson get his face burned off with a blowtorch?

All through my years of film geekery, there's been a handful of movies I desperately wanted to see but never could track down. One by one, I've been finding 'em — and in almost every case, what I've seen has been worth the wait.

7 Men From Now — one of the greatest Westerns I've ever seen.

Gun Crazy — for once, all the books of snobby scholarly film noir analysis didn't screw up my enjoyment of a terrific B crime picture.

Another example, which I saw last night here, is 1955's Big House, USA (located by my web-surfing wife Jennifer — another reason I love her so much).

It's a tough, gritty B crime film, directed by Howard W. Koch and boasting one of the greatest casts I've ever come across: Broderick Crawford, Ralph Meeker (the same year he did Kiss Me Deadly), Reed Hadley, William Talman, Lon Chaney (Jr.) and Charles Bronson. I knew it'd be good. Gordon Avil's camerawork is impressive, too.

This is nowhere near the movie those other two are. But as a nasty 83 minutes of Fifties cinema, it's hard to beat. Let's see. A kid is chucked off a cliff. A guy is trapped inside a giant boiler — and promptly steamed like a lobster tail. And as previously mentioned, Bronson has his face and fingertips seared off to conceal his identity.

Y'all can have Wizard Of Oz and Sophie's Choice. Give me more like this.

So go watch it. (You can spare 83 minutes, can't you?) You'll thank me.

A few hot rod pics.

Things like this get drug to my desktop every so often. There, now I've done something with them.

Little Deuce Coupe

Bitchin' article in The New York Times.

Masterpiece.

"Old Fisherman" by Jeppa.

A tribute to the Old Master, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.

From The Shoulda-Been-There Department.

Here's The Huntington Cads at Tiki Oasis a week ago, their first show together in over a decade.



And I'd like to dedicate it to Spanky, who's being laid to rest this afternoon.

Brian Rogers (AKA Spanky Twangler) 1970 - 2009

Just found out that Brian Rogers — Spanky Twangler of The Penetrators — passed away yesterday.

The Penetrators were a fabulous surf band.

And Brian, he was a terrific person. I really enjoyed our sporadic, long-distance, email relationship over the years, and I wish I'd known him better. Having the band stay at my home during a pass through Chapel Hill was indeed a privilege, as is being a member of The Southern Surf Syndicate.

I admire Brian's faith, peace and determination throughout his illness even more than I've always admired his talent. He was a good one.

Let's remember the good stuff.

Last week marked 40 years since the murder of Sharon Tate by a gang of evil freaks. None of us have to really work at remembering the anniversary — the endless reruns of Geraldo's old interview with Charlie will let you know it's come around again.

But now that Geraldo has reminded me, I'm gonna dig up (no pun intended) the DVD of The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967).

It's funny. It's brilliant. It's silly. It's beautiful. It's dead-on. And it reminds us just what promise Sharon and Roman had going together before those freaks took it all away.

The Man In The Moon.

Ed "Big Daddy" Roth in a Mooneyes shirt of some sort.

That's Entertainment!

What your driveway looks like in Heaven.

Rio Bravo #4

The Untamed Youth: "Hey Elly May"

Rio Bravo #3

Howard Hawks tells John Wayne and Angie Dickinson what he wants.

Rio Bravo #2

A snapshot of Dean as Dude. Old Tucson, Arizona, May of '58.

Thanks to the site I took this from.

Rio Bravo

Here's John Wayne fixing Ricky Nelson's hat on the set of one of my all-time favorite movies, Rio Bravo (1959).

When I first saw this photo, I thought "Wayne's really cool in those Ray Bans." But the more I look at it, I think he's got some of those Esquivel/Buddy Holly frames. Even cooler.

Also, I noticed that even in his street clothes, he's wearing his belt buckle from Red River. Can you tell I've been looking at this way too much?

Thought I'd put my Friday/Zappa thing on hold and wallow in Rio Bravo for a while.

What a night.

Cary, North Carolina. The couch. A Sony console TV.

Fridays With Frank (Zappa) #15

Does that say "Turgid Flux States?"

I thought so.

Roth, anyone?

From an old Roth t-shirt ad.

Good news.

September 15, 2009, will see the DVD release of John Ford's Wagon Master (1950). Be sure to pre-order this one.

Fridays With Frank (Zappa) #14

I'd love to browse in this place.

Karl Malden, RIP

Here he is whipping Brando in the great One-Eyed Jacks (1961).

Dino DeLaurentis And His Crummy Kong

Crummy gorilla. Crummy movie — King King (1976) — but I love it anyway.

A Quick Lesson In Compostion

Attention photographers. Here's a couple frames lifted from a couple great Westerns. Dig the beauty of these shots.

First, Ride Lonesome (1960) directed by Budd Boetticher and shot by Charles Lawton, Jr.

Next, Sam Peckinpah's modern-day Western Junior Bonner (1972), with Lucien Ballard as DP.

I'd love to hang either of these images over my couch.

53 Gasser

Wish I could say I drove this 1953 Chevrolet to work this morning. Instead, I found it with Google Images.

Fridays With Frank (Zappa) #13

Four dollars and fifty cents! And no "convenience charge."

Fridays With Frank (Zappa) #12

The Zappa/Mothers ad campaign for Hagstrom Guitars — created in 1967 by Zappa's ad agency, Nifty Tough & Bitchin'.

From the Hagstrom Guitars website:
Back in 1967, Frank Zappa created an advertising agency in New York City called "Nifty Tough & Bitchin'" as another creative outlet associated with, but not directly tied to his musical endeavors. This ad agency, in a very short amount of time, mounted various professional advertising campaigns for clients such as Hagstrom Guitars, Panther Combo Organs, and even Remington Razor Blades in addition to art direction for the Mother's of Invention album covers.

The Hagstrom campaign was one of the first campaigns launched by Nifty Tough & Bitchin'. It features 3 print ads: "Nifty", "Long and Slippery", and "Folk Rock is a Drag", and a radio spot: "Long and Slippery". Using himself as the subject matter of the ads, Frank does a masterful job crafting these ads showing that he is not only a musical genious, but also an astute business man, and savvy marketeer. Frank was responsible for art direction of the various ad campaigns, and he was also skilled in the technical aspects of ad creation handling layouts and creating the blue lines for print media.

Nifty indeed.

""Well, if we're looking for a shark we're not gonna find him on the land."

The Ben Gardner head prop (found here) that pops out of the boat in one of the greatest scares in Film History.

Shot in Verna Fields' swimming pool. (She edited Jaws in her pool house.)

Venture In Space: Bob Bogle, 1934-2009

One of my heroes has passed away. Bob Bogle, co-founder of The Ventures, passed away on Sunday. In this photo, he's on the left.

(The) Ventures In Space (1964) remains one of my all-time favorite records.

Why I choose to live in Garner, NC.

Have a script due today, so I stopped at the local Dunkin Donuts for coffee and a bowtie — and to look this thing over before heading into the office.

Was there about 30 minutes, and as I was getting ready to leave, this rather large woman came in, got in line, waited through 4-5 customers, and got a large coffee with "a whole lotta cream." She walked out right in front of me, obviously in a hurry and irritated by the wait.

Out in the parking lot was a big Buick or something, with a paintjob that had been beaten to hell by the sun. The driver's window was down and another big woman was behind the wheel. In her left hand was a cigarette. In her right hand was a puffy Cheeto. The Cheetos bag was in her lap.

Seeing her friend/mama/whoever come out with the coffee, the Cheeto lady yelled "We gotta git to the courthouse!"

It was all I could do to get to the car before I busted out laughing. And I'm really curious about what they're doing at the courthouse.

"We're having much more fun"

My daughter Presley and I saw X at Cat's Cradle on the 9th. Presley's descent into X fandom had really accelerated since last year's show (written about here), and she was in full autograph-seeking mode this time. Both Exene and Billy Zoom were extremely kind and patient, and my eight-year-old's still floating on a cloud over the whole thing.

Exene handed Presley the setlist, which is now hanging in her room (top photo). As you can see, this was a show full of great stuff. The encore also included an acoustic run-through of "See How We Are" by Exene and John Doe. There was an additional encore of "It's Who You Know," "Blue Spark" and "The World's A Mess, It's In My Kiss" — as fine a chunk of music as I've ever heard.

I've also come to the realization that X is my favorite band. And after years of evangelizing about them, to whoever would listen, my greatest success story has to be my own kid. Seeing Presley singing "Nausea" along with Exene was quite a sight. Her later call to my best friend James to give him a full report of the show was a hoot, too. (When you're handing out the Father Of The Year awards, don't hesitate to email for my address.)

In the background of the photo above (thanks, Erika), you can see Presley chatting with Billy Zoom. Her blog about the whole thing, much better than mine, is here.