As concerned as I am about Putin’s criminal invasion of the Ukraine, and the possibility of WWIII, it’s nice to have something as good as this to hear about.
Getting More of an Inkling
I’m going to direct you over to Mark Evanier’s widely-read News From ME blog. He has inside information and interesting insights regarding DC’s bosses assigning an inker for Jack Kirby after he moved there from Marvel.
The Music… and the Voices… in his Head
I watched the new Brian Wilson documentary, Long Promised Road.
Brian certainly deserves all of the credit and good will he receives, but it’s doubtful that he has ever truly been back — and that’s assuming he was ever completely okay.
The two bad guys in Brian’s life story — his father Murry and his longtime therapist Eugene Landy — are given the right amount of attention. There isn’t a lot of new information in the movie, but I didn’t know that Brian’s 34th birthday, in 1976, was celebrated with Paul McCartney, who was born two days before Brian. Which means they will both turn 80 in June.
Later on that year, John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd set up this SNL skit, featuring the first appearance of the car that I assume inspired the duo to come up with the Bluesmobile. The generic use of “Highway Patrol” was probably a nod to the 1950’s TV series with Broderick Crawford.
When they were at the beach, Annie Leibovitz took this photo of Brian for a Rolling Stone cover.
The record Linda McCartney showed to the camera was 15 Big Ones. In the documentary Brian asks a couple of times to hear this song from the album.
Seduction of the Gullible
The closest thing to TCM on broadcast TV is the Movies! TV Network. Here in Boston it’s found on standard definition sub-channel 17-2 [later 38-5]. The station recently showed While the City Sleeps (1956), directed by Fritz Lang. On TCM the movie comes without commercials and with Eddie Muller’s always inciteful and enlightening commentary.
Estes Kefauver was a politician with Presidential aspirations, whose Senate committee on organized crime was depicted in The Godfather Part II.
Kefauver saw a connection between organized crime and juvenile delinquency, which the notorious Dr. Frederick Wertham insisted had a direct correlation to kids reading comic books. Which of course it didn’t. This clip is from a TV show that was directed by Irvin Kershner, the director of the first Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back.
By the way, the comic book killer in the movie was played by Drew Barrymore’s dad.
More Sherlock’s Woke America
“Any truth is better than indefinite doubt.” — Sherlock Holmes
Spoiler: In “The Adventure of the Yellow Face” (1893), a white woman from Atlanta married a black man and had his child.
https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=The_Adventure_of_the_Yellow_Face
Back to Albuquerque
Better Call Saul is even better than its highly praised predecessor, Breaking Bad. The final season of 13 episodes begins on April 18.
https://youtu.be/meb8ksPgJ5M
My cable DVR says it’s going to record a preview this coming Saturday. After the final episode has appeared, TCM really will be the only reason for me to keep cable TV. The live channel is available with a Hulu subscription, but the Watch TCM streaming service requires a cable or satellite subscription.
Bob Odenkirk suffered a heart attack while he was on the set. He talked about it with Colbert a couple of weeks ago. I first started watching Breaking Bad after Colbert made references to it on his old Comedy Central show.