Blame it on the Hippies for Wanting a Better America

America was great until the damn liberals, poor people, those of color or different ideas and unwashed, longhaired communists started to make trouble. Life was good in Christian, Wonder Bread America before the criticism and protests. It was those commie longhairs that tried to destroy what’s good about this country. If they don’t like it, … More Blame it on the Hippies for Wanting a Better America

When Football Was About the Run: L.A. Rams in the 1970s

Today’s NFL is pass, pass, pass. Running the ball is boring for fans, and is only used to keep defenses honest. Besides, chicks love the long ball, as they say in baseball. I always marveled at teams that had a stable of quality running backs, and this was when teams only had a 40-man roster, … More When Football Was About the Run: L.A. Rams in the 1970s

Shane (1953)

Can you believe it, I had never seen this film (in it’s entirety) until this week. Sure, I knew what it was about and the final scene of Joey calling after his hero is etched in cinematic history. Somehow the film had escaped my viewing. The story point of a mysterious stranger appearing at an … More Shane (1953)

Female Stand-Up Comics (Back When It Was A Male Profession)

A funny thing happened. Not funny, ha-ha, funny as in ironic. I’ve been watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Prime, about a divorced female stand-up comedian in the late 1950s-early 1960s, and just stumbled onto a book called In On the Joke: The Original Queens of Stand-Up Comedy. The karmameter siren sounded, dive into this … More Female Stand-Up Comics (Back When It Was A Male Profession)

Ivan Meets G.I. Joe

In 1980, the Clash released a song called “Ivan Meets G.I. Joe” on their stunning Sandinista album. At the time, U.S. – Soviet relations were at a low point. The Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan and the U.S. was sending arms to Afghan fighters, particularly Stinger surface to air missiles that fell many Soviet helicopters … More Ivan Meets G.I. Joe

Film Titles: Classics

I am a fan of film credits/opening sequences. In film history, they served to give the audience information and set the story, often in a very creative way. Three of my favorite opening sequence designers are Saul Bass (Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger), Maurice Binder (James Bond) and Pablo Ferro (Stanley Kubrick, Steve McQueen). Film title … More Film Titles: Classics

Turn Back the Clock

A sizable number of Americans want to fire up the wayback machine and go back to the 1950s. Not just visit, but take up residence there. This is more than nostalgia, that warm and technicolor memory when you think of a family holiday or think about your favorite TV show or birthday dinner. This is … More Turn Back the Clock

Hitchcock by the Decade

I just finished a three-session film class on Alfred Hitchcock. Over six hours, we tried to digest his remarkable career. Of course, it helps to have seen most of his films and much of his television anthology series. Hitchcock is a lot of things, personality, auteur, mystery and macabre storyteller, and great observer of life. … More Hitchcock by the Decade