Right after this filming session, Mr. Mason's mustache fell off due to the Thunderbird fumes emanating from the glass near his lips. He then stuck his ascot into the neck of the Thunderbird bottle, lit it with his gold cigarette lighter and tossed at his agent/manager.
AS a young man, THE FUTURIST! loved the British band that called itself Squeeze. He has talked about his admiration and obsession with their sound in an earlier post. Today seemed like another good day to listen to some Squeeze ... and this time a little tune with a wistful story attached ... a song with a country flavoring. Listen to the story it tells. How many songs today sung by pop groups tell ... tales? Time to sit back with a potable and ponder.
THE FUTURIST! has been feeling very very low lately. Yes, you've heard it before, but this time he feels like he hit the floor head first ...
In a state of complete foggy ennui and thoughts of the abyss, THE FUTURIST! found this incredible recording of some obscure bands doing covers of Burt Bacharach songs.
Here is THE ABSOLUTE ZEROS doing their rendition of (There's) Always Something Left to Remind Me
This one is a wonder. Well, at least it took THE FUTURIST!'s mind away from sharp instruments.
THE FUTURIST! is away for a few days visiting a friend and, hopefully, other friendly people in Hyde Park, NY. He will probably use a computer in the the house he is staying in to check emails and cause mischief. He hopes he tries to stay away as much as possible from the Internet ... if he can. He has set some scheduled posts to appear while he is gone, including today's Saturday Music post. The music selection is from the film NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION. It is the song that accompanies the opening credits. THE FUTURIST! is very aware that this is a bit of a corny choice to select while he is away on a vacation. But, the music came to mind the other day when he was discussing Chevy Chase and how usually unappealing he is to THE FUTURIST!.
In 1983, THE FUTURIST! recalls seeing this film and how the theater viewing imprinted a memorable event in his psyche forever. He entered the theatre in the dark ... his blue eyes (which are supposedly more sensitive to light changes) were practically blind. He had to search for some friends that were awaiting him in seats located somewhere in the vast pitch black auditorium. The Warner Bros. logo appeared on the screen and this song started. It caused THE FUTURIST! great anxiety because he does NOT like to sit after a film starts. In his state of blindness and neurotic panic he tripped in the aisle and fell with a resounding 'OOMPH' and as he got up he thought he was using a theater seat armrest for support, but it was a strange man's trousered leg. It wasn't a proud moment for THE FUTURIST!.
The song is catchy, bouncy, and stays in your head. It's great for a 'sight' (so to speak) gag, too.
Listen:
HOLIDAY ROAD performed by Lindsay Buckingham from the film NATIONAL LAMPOON'S VACATION (1983)
Boredom drove THE FUTURIST! to dig into his curiosity regarding whether or not each actor hat portrayed James Bond 007 (in the film series) had ever warbled a tune in a film or on a recording. THE FUTURIST! knew that Mr. Connery had appeared in a Disney film where his vocals chords were put to the test, but the others were a mystery. It seems they all have sung in some manner, except ... as far as can be ascertained ... George Lazenby. Please listen to the examples below. Some may surprise you in a horrified manner or in a pleasing manner. THE FUTURIST!'s favorite for reasons left unexplained (until you hear it and see it) is Timothy Dalton. By the way, THE FUTURIST! understands if you just listened to a bit and moved on in a polite manner.
In the spirit of the Twitter meme of cellphone movie titles that THE FUTURIST! posted a week or so ago ... here is another game of wordplay that ensued on 8/12/10 and the entries made by THE FUTURIST!
RAGING GUERNSEY
THE MALTESE SPARROW
BOB & CAROL & TED
BRAVELIVER
WILLY WONKA AND THE BREATH MINT FACTORY
HUG ME KATE
ANGELS & IMPS
THE SAFE DEPOSIT BOX OF THE SIERRA MADRE
BLADE STROLLER
THE GRACIE ALLEN OVERDUE PARKING TICKET CASE
THE OVERLY FRISKY BUNCH
BELL BOOK AND MATCHSTICK
BASEBALL PENNANTS OF OUR FATHERS
TANGO AND POCKET CHANGE
SLAP THE PIANO PLAYER
HUMMIN' IN THE RAIN
BABETTE'S SNACK
THE BRIDESMAID OF FRANKENSTEIN
MISUNDERSTANDING ON THE BOUNTY
SID CAESAR directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
JUST KNEE HIGH AND LOW
VAGUE REFERENCES ABOUT EVE
A BLOCK AWAY FROM THE WATERFRONT
SUPERMARKET STRAWBERRIES
and his personal favorite:
m
There were two submitted by Glenn Kenny ( @ ExtAngel ) that THE FUTURIST! really liked:
VARNISH YOUR WAGONSand THE BATTLE OF THE SLIGHT PORTUBERANCE
and one by Craig Phillips ( @craigary ) of GreenCine:
After Quentin Tarantino, THE FUTURIST! considers Edgar Wright to be one of his most favorite of today's current directors. Perhaps, THE FUTURIST! should qualify that declaration a bit ... in respect of the directors today that truly love film, love talking about movies and making movies and love love to watch them ... those two men are at the top of the list. Each of them have a great knowledge of film ... not just classics, but the films of their youth or beyond their time that some would call (with a slight raising of a lip to show an incisor) .... genre pictures.
Yes, Edgar Wright can wax poetic on Mike Hodges' FLASH GORDON, a Mario Bava Giallo, De Palma's THE FURY or Disney's THE BLACK HOLE. He loves the thrill that movies incite in the soul. His ecstasy is evident in his own work. THE FUTURIST! was not quick to watch his first film SHAUN OF THE DEAD. He thought it would be some goofy spoof of zombie pictures. It wasn't. It was more than a spoof. It was full of great camera work, incidental widescreen delights at the corners of the screen, great human emotion and terrific sight gags. Wright made a film that had a plot and feeling and showed his love for the genre. THE FUTURIST! thought the ending a bit weak, but he really loved it. However, THE FUTURIST! just loved to bits Wright's next comedy HOT FUZZ. It was a grand blending of film genres and terrific comedy laced with Peckinpah violence. You can see how earlier films influenced him ... in this case, 80s action pictures, THE WICKER MAN, the Agatha Christie cozy and westerns ... but Wright makes them his own and goes further. The final villain/hero climax left a smile on THE FUTURIST!'s face. What a great viewing experience. THE FUTURIST! had never seen anything like it. The joy of film was in every frame
Last year, Tarantino's INGLORIOUS BASTERDS made THE FUTURIST! love film all over again after months of dreck. This year, he hopes Wright's SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD will do the same. THE FUTURIST! has not yet seen this film as of this writing, but it just opened wide near Utter Despair NJ. He plans to see it this coming week. It's at The Hive Mega-MegaPlex. The one drawback? It stars THE FUTURIST!'s most current least liked actor ... Michael Cera. Okay ... THE FUTURIST! said if he saw one more movie starring this one note actor he would commit Cera-cide. If ... IF ... Edgar Wright can make a film starring Cera and still make THE FUTURIST! smile and have a skip in his step after he leaves The Hive Mega-MegaPlex, well ... Edgar Wright will be even more special to THE FUTURIST!
Below is a song written for the film by Beck. Strains of this tune were heard in the film trailer. THE FUTURIST! likes it a lot. It's a good harbinger of things to come.
(fingers crossed)
Listen:
RAMONA performed and written by Beck from the film SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD (2010)
Please take your seats for another short experience of less than 10 minutes. And please turn off your cell phones. Thank you ... please enjoy this trailer to the sci-fi sex thriller INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS (1973). Something is going on in the town of Peckham and it involves alien woman having sex with ugly men, body snatching, white goo, Government agents and B-Movie actor William Smith. THE FUTURIST! likes when the voice over man says, "INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS!" and they cut to the fat sheriff saying, "They are dropping like flies!"
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Whew! After all that weird murderous sex stuff THE FUTURIST! thinks it's time for a nice big frankfurter in a bun! Sounds good, right? The boys below agree and they are ready ... and remember at the refreshment stand they always push a large thin metal needle in your bun wrapper to keep it all together!
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Full? Good! Now it's time for our feature ... 1 min and 38 seconds of SUPER FUZZ directed by Sergio Corbucci. An Italian dubbed police crime comedy starring Academy Award winning actor Ernest Borgnine. THE FUTURIST! shows quality films with quality actors.
Does Harvey Sid Fisher realize that his dancing girl is dressed as a cheetah or a leopard and not the lion that represents the Astrology sign of LEO? Does he even care?
THE FUTURIST! has been watching spy films recently. He has several on the back burner to watch. He might revisit some that he saw a long time ago. The memory of their plots are a bit faded. One of the movies that came to mind was the campy spy adventure OUR MAN FLINT (1966) directed by Daniel Mann. The 1960s was rife with espionage films, primarily due to the popularity of the James Bond film series. There were quite a lot of "serious" spy films in the cinemas, but the two FLINT pictures were more fun and spoofed the genre. THE YOUNG FUTURIST! recalls having his Dad show him this film and laughing at the antics and tongue in cheek approach of the writers and director. However, THE YOUNG FUTURIST! was impressed by James Coburn's cool demeanor and acting. The film was full of delight and laughs, but it, also, made THE YOUNG FUTURIST! feel tense at times when Flint was in danger ... and there was such an air of sexuality flowing through the film. Movies were a big part of THE FUTURIST!'s maturation.
The music from the film truly impressed THE YOUNG FUTURIST!. The score was by the prolific film composer Jerry Goldsmith. It is marvelous. It aurally brings to life the soul of the film ... the wink and the danger of this comically clever spy adventure.
On a side note, the red phone that summons the head of Z.O.W.I.E. (that's Flint's secret spy organization) has a ring that is duplicated in the Austin Powers series. But that is the only thing duplicated. AUSTIN POWERS is pure finger poking satire of the genre. FLINT plays on both sides of the streets of Comedy and Adventure.
THE FUTURIST! suggests you watch the FLINT films. They are what movie watching fun is all about. A spy spoof that doesn't go overboard in it's comedy.
Listen:
OUR MAN FLINT THEME composed by Jerry Goldsmith from the film OUR MAN FLINT (1966)
THE FUTURIST!'s dear friend from across the Big Pond, THE GENTLEMEN OF LEISURE, is back. He has provided another list for the blog. His last list was from last SHOCKtober, wherein he listed his favorite horror pictures. It was one of the very first TOP 5 LISTS that THE FUTURIST! has featured. The Gentleman was kind enough to provide another ... he has nothing else much to do, actually ... he is a Man of Leisure, you know. The last list went over well, as did his accompanying photograph, which showed him in his glorious sloth-like fashion slumming about at a cafe somewhere in Ireland. This time The Gentleman is reporting from Scotland and he seems a bit more "put together" in a physical sense. Last time he seemed a bit mussed up ... a tad hungover, perhaps lethargic due to liquor imbibing. The above photo shows him as debonair as ever (great vest and tie), seemingly more attune to his surroundings and quite happy. And his hair is combed.
The Gentleman has found a new devil-may-care life in the land of kilts, Scotch Whiskey and Sean Connery ... and he found time in his very heavy schedule of doing practically nothing to compile for his good friend in Utter Despair, N.J. a new list. This one is his favorite Summer songs. Please read, listen, watch and enjoy ...
THE GENTLEMAN OF LEISURE'S TOP 5 SUMMER SONGS
1. MR. BLUE SKY - E.L.O. Possibly an obvious choice, but you can't argue with the Electric Light Orchestra!
2. YOU AND ME AND THE MOON - Magnetic Fields One of my favourite songs. Very energetic and perfect for summer. (The only online copy I could find is a terrible lip-sync by some young one, so please hide the video away and just listen.)
* A Word from THE FUTURIST! - The Gentleman's reference to a "Young One" is his parlance for a female of youthful age. Back to the list ...
3. SLOOP JOHN B - The Beach Boys Nothing says summer quite like The Beach Boys, and this one has a touch of sadness to it, too. "Then he took and ate up all of my corn."
4. SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND - The Divine Comedy Something for the summer, even? Neil Hannon is quite the Gentleman of Leisure in this video, too!
5. ATLANTIS - Donovan Another one of my favourite tunes, and a perfect closer for this summer EP! Enjoy!
Ah! The Gentlemen of Leisure included Neil Hannon and The Divine Comedy. The Gentleman is a man after THE FUTURIST!'s own small sad heart.
Dear Gentleman of Leisure: Thank you for your list and please continue to lounge about, enjoy Life, dress in sartorial splendor and communicate with THE FUTURIST! with your wonderful lists. And, of course, continue to make THE FUTURIST! incredibly envious regarding your care-free existence. You are the antithesis of THE FUTURIST! Damn you!
THE FUTURIST! is waiting for his next vacation in 2 weeks. He feels stressed and isolated. Even a recent jaunt into Manhattan to see a play at Lincoln Center did not alleviate his stress. His aggravation was compounded by the loss of some shoe heel protectors he searched frantically for, purchased, applied to his new shoes and then found they had come off while in Manhattan. THE FUTURIST! tends to walk a certain way that seems to wear out the outer side of his heels. This results in shoes not lasting long and causing tired achy feet. It was distressing to find they had disappeared on his travels.
Of course, it's little things like that that seem more teeth clenching than anything else ... because you use that very little annoyance as a mask for all that is upsetting you. THE FUTURIST!'s compatriots, on his Manhattan adventure, asked him to stop talking about his new shoes and the vanished heel protectors. He was giving them stress. Exact quote: "You sound like a neurotic in a Neil Simon play!"
So, THE FUTURIST! is waiting out another week. Maybe he'll go to the movies on his day off on Friday. Maybe he'll buy a couple of books. He wants to try a new ice cream parlor that opened in Utter Despair. It's supposed to be very good ice cream. They have a supposedly rich dark chocolate flavor that has created a stir amongst those who are not lactose intolerant. Maybe these things will help him feel less stressed until his vacation starting August 15. Maybe ...
