Year: 2007

Battlestar Bows Out

My buddy Bismo has been coming over most Friday evenings for a couple of years now, getting us into the DVD releases of recent TV shows we’d never seen. He started with The Tick, a hilarious short-lived live action show that’s an absolute must-see for any comic book fan, past or present. Then we moved on to the somewhat longer-lived sci-fi show Firefly, and its finale movie Serenity, and now we’re watching the ambitious and substantial Battlestar Galactica.

We’re in the second season of Battlestar, and Bismo says the next show will introduce Lucy Lawless’ character. The third season isn’t out on DVD yet, and it’s been announced that the upcoming fourth season will be the last. FiOS Video On Demand has a short feature about the show, with some of the cast. There’s an abrupt splice where I took out a spoiler I don’t want Eric to hear.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/SEP07/BattlestarFeature.flv 400 300]

More Help for HELP!

This is the trailer to the Beatles movie HELP! as posted on YouTube™.

Here it is as done by yours truly, taken (of course) from a 20-year-old LaserDisc. Better, yes? This is why I avoid YouTube when I can, although I must say the new, interactive Flash player is slick.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/SEP07/HELPtrailer.flv 400 300]

The narrator is Mason Adams. Didn’t have to look him up, I recognize his voice. Remember him on Lou Grant?

Sunrise On Sunset Boulevard

I could have sworn I made a comment elsewhere about sneaking a peek at a movie my parents were watching one night, after I’d gone to bed, but now I can’t find it. But anyway, I have a vivid memory of the image that I’ve put in the preview frame of the video player.

That sneaked peek was around 1967. I was a year or more into comic book collecting, making the transition from the lighter DC Comics to the heavier Marvel Comics. I loved the whole feeling of the opening minutes of Sunset Boulevard. I thought it was just like a comic book, with William Holden floating face down in the pool, narrating his own story from beyond the grave.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/SEP07/SunsetBlvd.flv 400 300]

Note: Petula Clark played Norma Desmond on Broadway in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s musical adaptation of Sunset Boulevard.

Pratt Porch Project – Days 15, 16

Once again something unexpected came up. But this one wasn’t optional. A lot of dry rot was found under the deck. Fortunately, none of it had reached into the sill of the foundation. Another bad bit of work by whomever did the original construction — there was no flashing! So all of day 15 was spent repairing that and installing flashing. The end result is in the left picture. Day 16 was the completion of the blue board and installation of the outside door. The wall sleeve for the A/C was installed before the blue board went up, but I neglected to mention it.

Pratt Porch Project - Day 15Pratt Porch Project - Day 16Pratt Porch Project - Day 16

HELPed Back

The second Beatles movie, HELP!, first mentioned here nearly a year ago, is being re-re-released on DVD. The Beatles were terrorized by a fanatical eastern religion that was out for blood! I love this movie, it always makes me laugh, and I think it HELPed prime my generation for enjoying Monty Python.

John Lennon knocked HELP!, but it had much more influence on the 60’s as an era than A Hard Day’s Night. And, in fact, I think it had influence on the Beatles themselves, as seen in this video I spliced together.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/SEP07/HELP.flv 400 300]

“I can say no more” has been a running joke between me and D. F. Rogers for decades. Did you notice three things seen for the first time that would be seen again later?

  1. John’s wire-rim glasses
  2. Indian instruments
  3. The boys in Sgt. Pepper-ish garb

George Martin is also not particularly fond of HELP! because he didn’t score the incidental music. This is what Martin had to say about it in his book, All You Need Is Ears:

On the Beatle front, the next film was Help!, and that was done without my help! I produced all the Beatles recordings for it, of course, and they certainly thought I was going to do the film music; but since the director was Dick Lester again, it was hardly surprising that, to quote Sam Goldwyn, I was included out. The music was done by Ken Thorne, a buddy of Lester’s.